^luuihuui; •'■:':\^if<iiiju*ii 



66 



S A 31:' 



OR THE 



HISTORY OF MYSTERY. 



BY C. W. WEBBER. 

AUTHOR OF " THE HUNTER NATURALIST," ETC. 







CINCINNATI: 

H. M. RULISON, urEEX CITY PUBLISHING HOUSE, mVi MAIN ST. 

PHILADELPHIA: 

QUAKER CITY PUBLTSIIING HOUSE, 32 SOUTH THIRD ST. 

1855. 



.W37 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 185o, 

BY H. M. RULISON, 

In the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio. 



Stereotyped and Printed by 
WILLIAM OVEREND& CO., 

C 1 N 1 S N A T r . 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



PART I. 



CHAPTER I. 

PAGE. 

The Mysterious birth of " Sam ^' — Some of his Youthful Feats and 
Characteristic Eccentricities 5 

CHAPTE R II. 

The young " Sam ^' proves a shrewd Citizen — His first Hanging Feat — 
The early Navigators , . 9 

CHAPTER III. 

First act of Diplomacy on the part of "Sam'' — His tender mercies 
toward the heathen King Philip, and other merciful attributes 12 

CHAPTER IV. 

Specimens of " Sam's " savage battles with the Indian Tribes — The 
character of his Retribution 18 

CHAPTER V. 

Capture of Cononchet and of Miantonomah — Annuwan, the last cap- 
tain of Philip — Characteristic end of the War 23 

CHAPTER VI. 

The humorous Nathaniel Word — "Sam's" theory of government 
through his assistance — Blue Laws 31 

CHAPTER VII. 

Commencement of the Witch-burning Comedy — Exemplary Mr. Philip 

Smith, and the Valdemar Case 35 

(ill) 



iv TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

PAGE. 

The Origin of the Witch Persecutions — Character of Cotton Mather — 
Cotton Mather and his Invisibles — Parris, his associate and conspir- 
ator — Hanging of George Burroughs — Decline of the delusion, and 
Mather's despair — Quaint specimens from Mather's Works — ^White 
Slavery 39 

CHAPTER IX. 

Slavery, White, Black, Red and Yellow — Impudence of the clamor 
about Slavery, raised by those with whom it originated — Slavery old 
as time — Historical, of the different forms of Slavery 46 

CHAPTER X. 

Slavery brought home to the Children of " Sam " — Pure Domestic 
Aspect — Original existence in all the Colonies — " Sam's Slave Panic 
in New York 51 

CHAPTER XI. 

Puritan " Sam " and Individuality — "Day" first Printer — Abuse of 
the Virginia Settlers in the " Yellow covered Literature " of Hist- 
ory — Who were the true Discoverers and Settlers of America ? 63 

CHAPTER XII. 

Formation of the London Company for the Settlement of Virginia — 
Birthplace of Capt. John Smith, and early crosses — Enters the ser- 
vice of Austria — Single combats in presence of both armies — Prisoner 
among the Tartars — Romantic adventures and escape — Joins the 
London Company — Prisoner among the Indians — Saved from death 
by the youthful Pocahontas — Other achievements in America 66 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Historical depreciation of "Sam's" Southern children — Abusive epithets 
current — Contrast with the first Northern Settlements — Who, appar- 
ently, under the ban of Providence? — Who were the Discoverers 
and Explorers of the New World ? 74 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Prosperity of the Colony of Jamestown under the rule of Captain 
Smith — Sudden Treachery of the Indians and great INIassacre of the 
Settlers 82 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. V 

CHAPTER XV . 

Origin of " First Families " in Virginia — Auction of wives to the 
Virginians — "Sam's" idea of Aristocracy — Virginians obtain the 
right of trial by Jury — of Representative Government also — Religi- 
ous toleration, first granted them, repealed 85 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Repeal of Charter of London Company — The Bacon Rebellion — Death 
of Bacon, and character of same 90 



PART 11. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

A new mystery — The rise of Luther, and Protestant wars — Advent of 
the mystery of Jesuitism 95 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Life of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Order — Spiritual exercises— 
The Weeks — The Contemplations — Loyola a Pilgrim to the Holy 
Places — His persecutions — His first disciples, Xavier, Le Fevre — 
Lainez and Rodriques vow to go to the Holy Land and convert Infi- 
dels — Vow of perpetual chastity and poverty — The vow of unques- 
tioning obedience — Refusal of the Holy See to recognize the Order — 
Cunning vow of obedience to the Pope — Obtains his recognition — 
Bull of recognition 99 

CHAPTER XIX. 

Loyola's early tribulations — His inflexible Will — Obtains the critical 
Pledge of implicit obedience from his disciples — Bull of final recog- 
nition from the Pope 109 

CHAPTER XX. 

Was Ignatius Loyola a Bigot? — Other Bigots of the same stamp — 
*' Sam's " indignation aroused — Hideous sacrilege and spiritual 
tyranny — Perinde ac si cadaver , 116 



VI TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

PAGE. 

Insiduous cunning of the Jesuits — Death extortions — Robbery and 
Ruin of their Devotees — Scandalous scenes in the interior — ^Life of 
Jesuitism — Loyola entangled with the " Sisters " — Secret Jesuits. . . 125 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Monstrous Doctrine of Probableism — Doctrine of Equivocation — Ter- 
rible Corruption of the Confessional 134: 

CHAPTER XXIII. 
The internal Jesuit — " Sam's " private opinion of the historical Jesuit, 
inside and out — Corruptions of the Missions — Heathenism out-hea- 
thened in India 143 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

Jesuit Oppression — Their Policy in Foreign Missions — Their Benefi- 
cence toward the primitive Races of America — Death of the Incen- 
diary, Wolf the Jesuit Priest 147 

CHAPTER XXV. 
The deadly war of the Jesuits against Protestantism continued in the 
New World — Cant of Bancroft the Historian — Illustrations — Martyr- 
dom ? — Facts and Motives of Jesuit Missions — League of the Iro- 
quois — Intrigues of the Jesuits — First Intercolonial War — Predomi- 
nance of Jesuit Instigation 160 

CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Queen Ann's, or " Second Intercolonial War " between " Sam " and 
the Order of Jesuits — The Order not quite ready for formidable 
operations in the South — Retrospective glance at acts and influences 
of the Catholic Priesthood in Mexico, from the Conquest — Evidence of 
Clavigero, the Catholic Historian of Mexico — The monstrous destruct- 
ion of the archives of Historical Pictures in Yucatan, by an " Eccle- 
siastic " — Destruction of the most precious Arts, which were common 
throughout Mexico 175 

CHAPTER XXVII. 
Vandalism of the Catholic Priesthood continued in New Mexico — Anti- 
quarian researches concerning the first Missions to New Mexico — 
Conquest of California — Various efforts to penetrate the mysterious 
gold region, by the Catholic governors of California — Extermination 
of the Catholic Spaniards of the Conquestador-Occupation — Hidden 
ruins and strange Traditions — Ruins of magnificent Catholic 
Cities — Marvelous treasures won by Cortez from Montezuma 180 



1 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. VU 

CHAPTER XXVIII. 

PAGE. 

Alas Poor Mexico ! — Marquette and Joliet — La Salle — His pretended 
retirement from the Order of Jesus — His Fur Monopoly — He descends 
the Mississippi to its mouth — His Death — Remarks — Commencement 
of the Second Intercolonial War 196 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Commencement of the final struggle between the French and English, 
for the country on the great Lakes and the Mississippi — Fourth 
Intercolonial War 228 

CHAPTER XXX. 

Hildreth's account of the Progress and Conclusion of the Fourth 
Intercolonial War — Accession of George III — The English masters 
of the Continent, north of the Gulf of Mexico, and east of the Mis- 
sissippi 254 

CHAPTER XXXI. 

Condition of the Colonies at the conclusion of the Fourth Intercolonial 
War — Theory of the English Parliament — Grenville's Scheme of 
Colonial Taxation — Passage and Repeal of the Stamp Act 275 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

Pawn of the Revolutionary Period — Humorous " History of John 
Bull's Children " — Contrast between causes which led to the Revolu- 
tion of 1688, in England, and those which led to the American 
Revolution ; from Judge Drayton's Charge, in 1776 293 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Townshend's Scheme of Colonial Taxation — Repeal of the new taxes, 
except that on Tea — Local Affairs — Trade of the Colonies — Attempt 
to collect the Tax on Tea — Reminiscences of the position of the Tea 
Ships at Boston — Destruction of the Tea in Boston Harbor 304 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

The troubles thicken — Gage reinforced — Assembly of the first Conti- 
nental Congress at Philadelphia 321 

CHAPTER XXXV. 

Arnold's Defeat before Ticonderoga and Crown Point — Gage's Proclam- 
ation exempting from pardon John Hancock and Adams — Battle of 
Bunker Hill 347 



Vlll TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XXXVI. 



PAGE. 



The first Sea Fight, and origin of the U. S. Navy— Ethan Allen taken 
captive and sent to England — Capture of St. Johns and Montreal — 
The Expedition against Quebec — Re-organization of the Army — Lord 
Howe in Boston — Movements of the British in Virginia 367 

CHAPTER XXXVIL 

The Settlements in the West — Biography of Boone, by Himself — Bio- 
graphy of Simon Kenton 398 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

Interesting Sketch of the life of General Stark, the hero of Benning- 
ton — The Battle of Bennington — Boston a century ago — Captain 
William Cunningham 4.1 6 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Sketch of Colonel Daniel Morgan — The Non-resistant Principle of the 
Quakers — Its consequences about these times 445 



CHAPTER XL. 

The Treaty with France — The progress of the War, North and South — 
The Cowpens — Yorktown — Surrender of Cornwallis — Letter from 
General Washington 458 

CHAPTER XLI. 

Trouble with the Indians — Tecumseh's League — General Harrison — 
Battles with the Indians — The British treat with them — Death of 
Tecumseh 473 

CHAPTER XLII. 

Causes of the War — Debates in Congress — Extracts from Mr. Clay's 
Speeches on the different phases of the War Question 499 



ti 



IS/Ls 



^J 



OR, THE 



HISTORY OF MYSTERY. 



PART L 



CHAPTER I. 

The Mysterious birth of " Sam "-—Some of his Youthful Feats and Char- 
acteristic Eccentricities. 

Once, when Earth, the good mother, was in grievous 
tribulation because of her children, and a voice of wailing 
was heard among the nations, a great cloud grew up sud- 
denly in the East, and there seemed a sign of fire and tem- 
pest within its bosom. 

All the peoples felt the shadow of this great cloud upon them, 
but they knew not what the strange portent meant, except 
that, to certain minds among them, it seemed that this gath- 
ering of mighty forces must be pregnant with some MYSTERY 
that was to step out from its bosom soon, as if the " Son of 
the morning" came forth from the caves of night, and that 
this mystery, too, was most like to stand as an embodiment, 
whether an incarnated embodiment or not, of some new birth 
of regeneration to all mankind. 

Though it was thus the wise man spoke, or rather hoped, 
yet there was no one who knew these things to be true ; 
therefore the people trembled, and were afraid, while the 
turmoil of this cloudy Presence rolled with its slow shadow 
over them ; and when they saw it take its way toward the 
West, over the solitary sea, they wondered greatly whither 
it might be speeding. Only the Viking's wandering proAV 
had furrowed that solitary sea, as yet, when the great cloud 
set forth upon its face ; but there were daring men who said 

(5) 



6 " Sam :" or, the History of Mystery. 

its shadow was a protection, and that no harm could come to 
any bark which sailed beneath it. 

A.nd soon, from the port of Palos, in Andalusia, a fleet of 
little ships, like three cockleshells, went dancing forth upon 
the open sea, and were quickly hid from view beneath that 
shadow. A mighty sailor stood within these deckless hulls, 
whose deei>visioned eyes saw beyond all shadows. (14!J2, 
3d August.) 

And when men saw the miglity sailor forth, then from 
many a port went many a vessel, to sail within his wake, 
and all the world was filled with wonder of the golden mira- 
cles those ships brought back. And many a gay, adventur- 
ing host went shining underneath that shadow, that its slow 
glooms would not give u]). 

At length (Dec. 11th, 1620), the great cloud, which for 
more than a hundred years had wandered up and down, 
brooding upon the sea, gathered together, and amidst a 
mighty anthem of the waves and winds, struck upon a head- 
land rock, at Plymouth, and its voluminous folds, wrapping 
the snows for a moment, shivered as in a throe, then, thin 
and dim, commenced to fade upon the icy air. 

Now, as the shattered cloud rose up, a strange, frail ship 
that seemed to have been hidden within its womb of shadow, 
lay trembling feebly in the ofhng on subsiding waA^es. The 
name of the little ship was " Mayflower.'' 

But when the cloud ^Yas all gone, there lay stretched upon 
the snow-covered summit of that headland rock a ffio-antic 
form, which seemed most like some helpless and misshapen 
Titan, which had been thus struck dumb, blind and sprawl- 
ing out of the thunders of a tempest-birth, and hurled upon 
the desolation. 

The trees yet rocked behind the passing storm when the 
bright sun came out, glittering keenly from the angles of 
the frosty rocks, upon this pale, ungainly specter, which, 
born thus of the thunder, seemed the incarnation of some 
new and powerful Force. 

Touched by the sun, its lips moved in inarticulate sounds, 
that seemed in natural consonance with the groanings of the 
struggling forest, whicli bent its trees like grass-spears 
beneath the heavy head, thus pillowed on them all uncon- 
seiouslv. 



"Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 7 

The great arms of the monstrous Youngling, cast wildly 
out in spasms of a troubled awakening, in the involuntary 
clasp of drowsy fingers, tore the old oaks from rocky fissures, 
and the mighty stretching of its restless feet made mael- 
stroms with the cliff-fronts, which they tumbled into the sea. 

Far away upon the crest of hills, and upon the promonto- 
ries of that broken shore, the tufted red men gathered, 
warned by the sounding tremors in the earth and air of 
some strange advent. And now they thronged and gazed 
upon this majestic wonder, which seemed to have lain down, 
as if upon its own couch, within the House-of-Sky, covering 
with its giant limbs the land of which the pestilence had 
made them but of late afraid.* 

Now, with a slow, upward heave, the shoulders of the 
Youngling arise beneath the sun, and as he sits erect with 
mute, upturned face and unsealed eyes, the bowed forest 
trees swing up again with a clangor that would have scared 
Behemoth, stepping on the mountains. 

He spreads with lazy stretch his arms abroad, feeling 
among the hills — and now, with quick sense, his unused 
fingers clutch upon the groups of shrinking red men, and 
thrilled by the touch of struggling life, he lifts them, fumb- 
ling, as if with baubles, toward his mouth. 

The dangling stoics howl their death-whoop while they 
swing through mid-air by their scalp-locks, and at the strange 
sound the Mighty Infant, with loosened grasp, throws up its 
hands in awe, for now, through eyes dim-opened in the startle, 

^•'On the 16th of March, 1620, the English received a visit from one of 
the natives, who came boldly into Plymouth, calling out Welcoyne English- 
men ! His name was Samoset, a Sagamore, who had learned a little English 
from the fishing vessels that had been on the coast. He informed the ad- 
venturers that the place they occupied, was called by the Indians Patuxet, 
and that all the people formerly inhabiting the place, died of an extraordi- 
nary sickness about four years since. — Antiquarian Researches — E. Hoyt. 

The spot to which Providence had directed the planters had, a few years 
before, been rendered entirely a desert by a pestilence, which had likewise 
swept over the neighboring tribes, and desolated almost the whole sea-board 
of New England. AVhen the Pilgrims landed, there were the traces of 
a previous population but not one living inhabitant. Smoke from fires 
in the remote distance alone indicated the vicinity of natives. Miles 
Standish, " the best linguist" among the Pilgrims, as well as the best sol- 
dier, with an exploring party, was able to discover wigwams, but no tenants. 
Yet a body of Indians from abroad Avas soon discovered hovering near the 
settlements though disappearing when pursued. — Bancroft's United States. 



8 "Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

the power of the sun has overcome him. Keaching, as if to 
pluck the glittering toy, his upright form has straightway 
chinned the hills, and with folded arms, now leaning idly on 
their harriers, he gazes out upon the spreading space. 

Some moving specs upon a far-off lake have caught his 
vacant eye — his outstretched grasp has reached them — and, 
gathering an Algonquin fleet within his fingers, he eyes, 
with unmoved stare, the frail canoes of bark that are crushed 
within unconscious pressure, then snapping the huge pines 
that grew along the steppes, he piled a mighty ark in play, 
that launched with a toss on the same waves, displaced in 
overflow the pent-up waters with its swing. 

As children pick in idleness at any dot upon the sheet, he 
plucked a wigwam village by the roots, and with a stare and 
stride, as if their funnel-tops had proved oSensive, he tore 
the idle bowlders from the valleys and built a towering House 
that would not smoke. 

Now, as the sun went up and the awed savages kneeled to 
him, the giant Infant took a new mood. While he gazed 
steadfast on the blazing orb, there seemed a gnat, or some 
ambitious thing, that flitted before his sight. He swept his 
great hand down and brought the struggler to his face. It 
pecked and clawed him with a vicious tare, that first aroused 
him to the sense of pain, and tossing the warlike insect from 
him, he watched it cleave with unrumpled plumes, the sun- 
ward air again. He took the tameless creature down from 
the skies, and made its eyrie on the House he built! 



i||-,'\u;i(|ii'j|iii'i\ij:(!''i!ii<' 

mam'' 



, mm 



mfmmmmmmmsmr*: 




CHAPTER II. 

The young "Sam" proves a shrewd Citizen — His first Hanging Feat — 
The early Navigators. 

The young Sam, though born out of a cloud, proved to be 
rather a sharp-sighted individual. One of the first evidences 
of this, it will be seen, he gave in a familiar way, when he 
hung half-a-dozen Quakers on Boston Common, and gave as 
a reason for it, that " we desire their lives absent, rather 
than their deaths present." 

It is to be supposed that this mythical personage fled from 
persecution ; but then there was a hearty savor in the way 
in which he attempted to annihilate the Anabaptists, and 
ruled the distempered Quakers up to Haman^s lodgings, 
which showed he had a genuine relish for persecution, per se. 

Perhaps it was that Sam thought persecution caused man- 
kind to thrive, for the same reason that we tell our babies, 
when they are caught out of doors in the summer rain, that 
the pelting makes them grow. At anyrate Sam took a very 
original view of matters and things when he found himself 
suddenly awake upon a new Continent. He had a dim remi- 
niscence of having been badly treated somewhere else, and 



10 "Sam:" or, THii lli^ioiu" of ^Iystery. 

therefore concluded that it must be best, in bis new condi- 
tion, to treat every one else shrewdly, at least, if not badly — 
.the Quakers and Miantonomah can tell you why ! So can 
Butler, in his Hudibras, who seems to have known something 
about Sam in his earliest dealings with the simple Narra- 
gansetts : 

" Our brethren of New England use 

Choice malefactors to excuse, 

And hang the guiltless in their stead 

Of whom the churches have less need ; 

As lately happened. In a town 

There lived a cobbler, and but one, 

That out of doctrine could cut use, 

And cut men's lives as well as shoes. 

This precious brother having slain, 

In times of peace, an Indian, 

(Not out of malice, but mere zeal, 

Because he was an Infidel) , 

The mighty Tottipottymoy 

Sent to our elders an envoy. 

Complaining sorely of the breach 

Of league held forth by brother patch, 

Against the articles in force 

Between both churches, his and ours. 

For which he prayed the Saints to render 

Into his hand or hang the offender. 

But they naturally having weighed, 

They had no man for him o' the trade. 

(A man that serv'd them in a double 

Capacity, to teach and cobble), 

Resolved to spare him, yet to do 

The Indian Hoghgan, Moghgan too, 

Impartia-1 justice, in his stead did 

Hang an old weaver that was bed-rid. 

There had been many adventurings toward the South, 
before Sam came to raise a nasal hymn within the rocky 
wilderness, that shook a continent with long reverberations. 
The Cabots had surveyed the North, Verrazzani, Cartier, 
Roberval, De la Roche, and noble old Champlain, had named 
the St. Lawrence, surveyed the Arcadia of the French, and 
settled Quebec. Ponce de Leon, seeking for the fountain 
of eternal youth, remained yet an old man, though Spanish 
commerce, through his superstitious yet chavalric enterprise, 
won a new passage through the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of 
Mexico. 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. ll 

Then had come the stubborn Cortez, and many a gallant 
Knight went down in his miraculous conquest. But Sam, 
even from the embryo of his cloudy birth , has always thought 
the proudest thing this Cortez ever did was when he took 
Pamphilo de Narvaez prisoner. 

This is the same person who had been sent by the jealous 
governor to Cuba to take Cortez prisoner, who, after having 
declared him an outlaw, was himself easily defeated. He 
lost an eye in the affray, and his own troops deserted him. 
When brought into the presence of the man whom he had 
promised to arrest, he said to him, " Esteem it great good 
fortune that you have taken me captive." Cortez replied, 
and with truth, "It is the least of the things I have done 
in Mexico. 

But with all the cark and cant which entered into the 
composition of his nature, our northern Sam, nevertheless, 
proves himself, in a general way, to be a right loyal gentle- 
man, that is, not particularly loyal to his king, but a most 
w^orshipful servitor of that hard-handed despot who pro- 
rogued the Long Parliament. We may as well say, en pas- 
sant, that there seemed to have been a contest between the 
old Continent and the new, when they managed almost simul- 
taneously to produce Oliver Cromwell and Sam, for they both 
whined at first and proved themselves reverentially absurd, 
yet always were victorious. Cromwell conquered an empire, 
and Sam, a Ncav World. 

Being both tyrants, they could not well be contrasted, 
but the motto of them both seems to have equally been, 
" ^ray to God and keep your powder dry.'^ 

Kaleigh, the loftiest cavalier the world has ever seen, 
and Smith — the veritable John Smith — the noblest of 
adventurers, had long ago formed colonies in Virginia, but 
not even the dauntless energies of Smith could make them 
stay colonized respectably, and San Augustine and James- 
town, and the settlements in North Carolina, and on the 
Chesapeake, had all proved partial failures, since the thirst 
for gold and wild adventure had mostly led them, rather 
than what he loves to call the solemn purpose to found an 
empire, when Sam really came, as we have seen. 



CHAPTER III. 

First act of Diplomacy on the part of " Sam " — His tender mercies toward 
the heathen King Philip, and other merciful attributes. 

Though the Sam, whose birth and advent we liave 
described, may be considered by the unbelievers as more or 
less of a myth, because he is not always visible to the naked 
eye, yet this is no sign — for it is to be remembered that 
his proportions are too great to be taken in by the gaze of 
common mortals — and for the same reason that the roar 
of Niagara makes a silence, thus confounding one sense — 
that of hearing — with the voice of nature, his great dimen- 
sions may confound another — that of sight — seeming to it 
only a continuation of space. 

We shall perceive, however, before this legend is through, 
that his existence is yet a veritable one, and if we can 
neither see nor hear him, we can feel him, and that the grip 
of his giant hand is now, and has been, as unmistakable 
throughout the land as the shaking of his mighty feet. 

Now, as a conscientious historian, we have not set out to 
prove Sam to have been a saint from the origin, though he 
may have been a very large baby. On account of his size, 
his wants were, of course, enormous. A childling of the 
elements, he could not be expected to have learned much of 
such unruly parentage, concerning the differences between 
right and wrong. 

Therefore it is not to be considered particularly surpris- 
ing that " the oldest act of diplomacy recorded in New Eng- 
land " should have been when, in their first parley with 
Massasoit, the chief of the Wampanoags, one of Sam's 
people, Mr. Winslow, was dispatched with some handsome 
presents and a pot of " strong water," to open a negotiation 
with the shy and simple savage, and that he, tempted by 

(12) 



*' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 13 

the novel sensations produced by the unknown drink thus 
oflered to him, as a pledge of amity, agreed to " come in '^ 
and discuss, with Governor Carver, the terms of a treaty. 
Then it followed of necessity that *' after an exchange of 
salutations, refreshments were placed before the chief, of 
which he and his people freely partook." That " a league 
of friendship was then agreed on," and that " the Indians 
departed well pleased with their interview," as says the 
impartial narrator* — can not reasonably be doubted. 

Who can doubt, also, that Sam must have got greatly 
the better of his ally through the potency of his " refresh- 
ments ? " Is it not pretty clearly shown in the fact that 
he actually kept faith with these poor Wampanoags, for 
about fifty years ? But then, having nearly ** pushed " 
King Philip, the haughty successor and grandson of this 
same Massasoit, " off the end of the log," upon which that 
good-natured old chief, as the ancient tradition goes, " had 
welcomed his tired limbs to sit down and rest," he made a 
characteristic conclusion of a long and terrible war, when, 
having hunted the unfortunate King through the swamps 
of New England, like a wolf, for having objected to being 
pushed off into the mud, he first shot him through the heart, 
in order to be sure he was dead, and then had him beheaded 
and quartered, by a man whom he had, as may be supposed, 
spiritually admonished from his birth to be named " Cap- 
tain Church," for the express purpose of sanctifying this 
deed — we mean, of course, as a veracious narrator, that it 
only sounded better to Sam that such a deed should have 
been done by something or somebody who bore such a name. 

We should not blame him if this were really true, for 
predilections like this were strictly, peculiarly his own ; and, 
as he first claimed their assertion in his own immense and 
manly way, we can begin to understand how it was that Sam 
proved afterward to be such a pet of Oliver Cromwell. 

It seems, altogether, a supererogation of pale-gilled Puri- 
tanism, that local historians, who presume to write a history 
of Sam, should so modestly j)ass over this most character- 
istic opening incident of his history, for there is quite suffi- 
cient grandeur in his nature and his plain-told acts to relieve 

■■' Hoyt's Antiquarian Researches, page 21. 



14 "Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

tliem of any necessary defense of prevaricating cant. The 
same story, of the first interview with Massasoit, is thus, in 
other words, narrated by one who seems to have felt himself 
" spiritually admonished,'' very much as w^e have related 
above concerning Captain Church, to become *• the defender 
of the faith," instead of the historian of Sam. 

" The chieftain of a race as yet so new to the Pilgrims, was 
received with all the ceremonies which the condition of the 
colony permitted. A treaty of friendship was soon com- 
pleted in few and unequivocal terms. The parties promised 
to abstain from mutual injuries, and to deliver up oifenders. 
The colonists were to rex^eive assistance if attacked — to ren- 
der it if Massasoit should be attacked unjustly. The treaty 
included the confederates of the sacJiem ; it is the oldest act 
of diplomacy recorded in New England ; it was concluded in 
a day, and, being founded on reciprocal interests, was sacredly 
kept for more than half a century. Massasoit desired the 
alliance, for the powerful Narragansetts were his enemies ; 
his tribe, moreover, having become habituated to some 
English luxuries, were willing to establish a traffic, while 
the emigrants obtained peace, security, and the opportunities 
of a lucrative commerce."'' 

The dainty form of speech which, here including every- 
thing in the phrases " all the ceremonies which the condition 
of the colony permitted" skims over the "pot of strong 
water to the chief," and concludes that Massasoit " having 
become habituated to some English luxuries, w^as willing to 
establish a traffic," is too transcendentally rich not to be twen- 
ty-seven years in advance — as the Dial has since been pub- 
lished — of the first modest insinuation from the same merid- 
ian, that Massasoit, having " left Mr. Winslow^ in the custody 
of his men, as a hostage, ventured to the English, by whom 
he was hospitahhj entertained, and with wdiom he concluded 
the treaty, already noticed."! 

The voice of Sam, himself, it is said, can yet be heard on 
any still day, reverberating among the Green Mountains. 



"Bancroft's United States, vol. 1st, page 317. 

t History of the United States of America, by the Rev. Charles A. Good- 
rich, 23d edition. 



" Sam :" or, the History of Mystery. 15 

" It is all a lie, I gave Massasoit rum !" And that he 
made a drunken treaty, and that Sam must have held him 
with his lordly nation by an ascendency of fifty years, in 
growling, half-subjection, can only be accounted for by the 
enslaving habits of the " English luxuries '^ to which the 
Wampanoags had been introduced. 

When the stern, heroic Philip, whose first overt act of war 
was caused by Sam's characteristic murder of three Indians, 
whom Philip was accused of having excited to the slaying of 
one Sansamon, a renegade Indian Missionary — which saintly 
personage, it seems, Philip thought had been inflicting too 
much piety and rum upon his nation ! Sam now lifted him- 
self up in wrath, striking with his heavy hand at the rebel- 
lious chieftain, for rum and piety, at the one blow. 

Here are some of the scenes which occurred about these 
times, and which go to show the comparative metal of these 
two foes. 

The English forces at Hadley, on the Connecticut, had 
become pressed for provisions and forage, and it was known 
that a large deposit of wheat, at Deerfield, fifteen miles up 
the river, was exposed in the stack to easy destruction by 
the Indians. 

Captain Lathrop, with his company of eighty men, with a 
number of teams and drivers, was accordingly detached by 
the commander at Hadley, to thrash out the grain and trans- 
port it to head-quarters. 

" In obedience to his orders, Lathrop proceeded to Deer- 
field, where Captain Mosely was then posted with a company 
of colony troops, and having thrashed the grain and loaded 
his teams, he commenced his march for Hadley, on the 18th 
of September, 1675. No discovery had been made of the 
enemy in the vicinity, and probably Lathrop did not appre- 
hend that they were watcliing his movements ; but it seems 
they were too vigilant to let slip so favorable an opportunity 
of depriving the English of such a valuable acquisition of 
stores. 

" For the distance of about three miles after leaving Deer- 
field meadow, Lathrop's march lay througli a very level coun- 
try, closely wooded, where he was every moment exposed to an 
attack on either flank ; at the termination of this distance, 



16 ''Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

near tlie south point of Sugar-loaf Hill, tlie road approxi- 
mated Connecticut river, and the left was in some measure 
protected. At the village now called Muddy Brook, in the 
southernly part of Deerfield, the road crossed a small stream, 
bordered by a narrow morass, from which the village has 
its name ; though more appropriately- it should be denomi- 
nated Bloody Brook, by which it was for some time known. 

" Before arriving at the point of intersection with the 
brook, the road for about half a mile ran parallel to the 
morass, then crossing, it continued to the south point of 
Sugar-loaf Hill, traversing what is now the home-lots, on 
the east side of the village. As the morass was thickly 
covered with brush, the place of crossing afforded a favorable 
point for surprise. 

" On discovering Lathrop's march, a body of upward of 
seven hundred Indians planted themselves in ambuscade at 
this point, and lay eagerly waiting to pounce upon him 
while passing the morass. Without scanning the woods in 
his front and flanks, or suspecting the snare laid for him, 
Lathrop arrived at the fatal spot, crossed the morass with 
the principal part of his force, and halted to allow time for 
his teams to drao; throu2:h their loads. The critical moment 
had arrived — the Indians instantly poured a heavy and 
destructive fire upon the column, and rushed furiously to 
close attack. Confusion and dismay succeeded. The troops 
broke and scattered, fiercely pursued by the Indians, whose 
great superiority enabled them to attack at all points. 
Hopeless was the situation of the scattered troops, and they 
resolved to sell their lives in a vigorous struggle. 

" Covering themselves with trees, the bloody conflict now 
became a severe trial of skill in sharp shooting, in which 
life was the stake. Difficult w^ould it be to describe the 
havoc, barbarity and misery that ensued. ' Fury raged, 
and shuddering pity quit the sanguine field,' while des- 
peration stood pitted at ' fearful odds,' to unrelenting 
ferocity. 

" The dead, the dying, the wounded, strewed the ground 
in all directions, and Lathrop's devoted force was soon 
reduced to a small number, and resistance became faint. 
At length the unequal struggle terminated in the annihila- 
tion of nearly the whole of the English ; only seven or 



'J' 



" Sam : ^' or, the History of Mystery. 17 

eight escaped from the bloody scene to relate the dismal 
tale, and the wounded were indiscriminately butchered. 

" Captain Lathrop fell in the early part of the action ; 
the whole loss, including teamsters, amounted to ninety. 
The company was a choice corps of young men, from the 
county of Essex, in Massachusetts — many from the most 
respectable families. Hubbard says, ' they were the flower 
of the country, none of whom were ashamed to speak with 
the enemy in the gate.' Captain Lathrop was from Salem, 
Massachusetts. 

"Captain Mosely, at Deerfield, between four and five 
miles distant, hearing the musketry, made a rapid march 
for the relief of Lathrop, and arriving at the close of the 
struggle, found the Lidians stripping and mangling the 
dead. Promptly rushing on, in compact order, he broke 
through the enemy, and charging back cut down all within 
the range of his shot, and at length drove the remainder 
through the adjacent swamp and further west, and after 
several hours of gallant fighting, compelled them to seek 
safety in the more distant forest. His lieutenants. Savage 
and Pickering, often led the troops, and distinguished them- 
selves in a particular manner by their skill and persevering 
resolution. 

" Just at the close of the action Major Treat, who, on the 
morning of the day, had marched toward Xorthfield, arrived 
on the ground with one hundred men, consisting of English, 
Pequot and Mohegan Indians, and shared in the final pur- 
suit of the enemy. The gallant Mosely lost but two men 
in the various attacks, and seven or eight only were 
wounded. Probably the Lidians had expended most of 
their ammunition in the action with Lathrop, and occa- 
sionally fought with bows and spears." 
2 



CHAPTER lY. 

Specimens of " Sam's ^' savage battles with tlie Indian Tribes — The char- 
acter of his Retribution. 

This sanguinary battle, only proved that the young Sam 
was, as yet, too indifferent to danger to be sufficiently 
cautious in his military movements, because having let his 
people loose, to go eating wild grapes, just before the fatal 
attack commenced, and while he might have reasonably 
expected something of the sorb, he succeeded in getting him- 
self soundly drubbed. But it affords a good foil to his next 
act of important retribution, in which he thoroughly avenged 
this earliest and most serious error of his adolescence. 

It is something after this fashion that the story runs. It 
seems that the commissioners of tlie colonies, who, as their 
representatives had by this time gotten so far along in the 
game of " marbles " as " plump-keeps '^ with the rifle, and 
then, from this striking stand-point of individuality, to 
playing partners at '• long-taw '' in the rtng, had neces- 
sarily entered into solemn articles of confederation. 

Having assembled in the name of the " United Colonies," 
they declared that the Narragansetts " had been deeply 
accessory in the present outrages," (which meant, of course, 
in the singular number, the late doixiat of Lathrop, etc., etc., 
understood,) and determined that an expedition should be 



'' Sam : " or, the History of Mystehy. 19 

carried into their country ; and so follows the account of this 
famous expedition, which resulted in one of the most savagely 
desperate battles ever fought in any country. 

On the 9th of December, the Massachusetts and Plymouth 
troops, assembled at Dedham and marched about twenty- 
seven miles, to Woodcock's plantation : thence continuing 
their march through Seconek, Providence, and over Patuxet 
river, they arrived at Wickford, the place intended for head- 
quarters. On the route, Captain Mosely surprised and cap- 
tured thirty-six of the enemy, and parties detached from 
Wickford, traversed the country in various directions; one 
of which burned one hundred and fifty cabins, and killed and 
captured several Indians. Prentice's dragoons penetrated 
the country as far as Pettyquamscott, which they found the 
enemy had burned, after killing fifteen of the inhabitants. 
■^The next day, the 18th, the whole army advanced to that 
place, and were joined by the Connecticut forces under Major 
Treat, who on his march had killed and taken a number of 
the enemy. 

The Indians had been apprised of the designs of the Eng- 
lish against the country, in time to prepare for their recep- 
tion. Their best warriors had collected and chosen a position 
m a large swamp, in the center of which, on an elevation 
containing five or six acres, they had constructed a work of 
palisades, and encompassed it with a sort of hedge, or rude 
abattis, through which was only one principal passage into 
the work, and this over a long log stretching across a brook, 
defended by suitable flanks ; and at one angle of the place, 
was a low gap, covered by a log four or five feet high, which 
might be scaled ; but near this was a sort of block-house so 
placed as to enfilade this weak point. The fortification in 
every part presented a formidable defense against musketry ; 
and from the nature of the surrounding swamp, the approach 
was diflicult."' 

The destruction of Pettyquamscott, was unfortunate for 
Winslow's army ; for here they expected to find a cover from 
the inclemency of the weather ; and BulVs garrison at this 
place, which had also been destroyed, would have furnished 

**The site of this place is in the town of South Kingston, Rhode Island, 

seyen or eiaht miles west of the south ferry to Newport. 



20 *'Sam:" or, the History of SIystery 

a place of defense in case of misfortune. Deprived of shelter, 
the troops were compelled to remain through a stormy night, 
with no cover hut the heavens, and as the weather was 
extremely cold they suffered severely. Early in the morn- 
ing of the 19th, Winslow put the army in motion, to attack 
the enemy. The distance was about sixteen miles — the 
snow deep — and the provisions were carried on the hacks of 
the men. At one o'clock in the afternoon, guided hy an In- 
dian, the army reached the skirts of the swamp, where a 
party of the enemy had taken post. This Avas instantly 
attacked, and the Indians driven into their works. Four 
companies of the van troops immediatel}' rushed through the 
swamp, and accidentally arriving at the log gap, mounted 
that angle of the fort, but were soon compelled to fall back 
to avoid the destructive fire of the enemy, poured from the 
block-house. Eeinforccd by two other companies another 
attempt was made on the same point, and, by a most gallant 
charge over the log, the troops entered the fort and beat the 
enemy from a flanker, and notwithstanding the severity of 
the fire from other points, maintained it ; but the enemy 
continuing their resistance, with great obstinacy — victory 
hung in doubtful suspense. The remainder of the army 
now pressing through the swamp, entered the fort at the 
point that had been carried, and the contest continued about 
three hours, but still with doubtful success. The enemy, 
driven from one covert to another, poured the English a 
fatal fire, reluctantly giving up their ground, and some were 
driven out of the fort. Captain Church, vfho was acting as 
aid to G-eneral Winslov/, at the head of a volunteer party, 
about this time dashed tlirough the fort, and got into the 
swamp in the rear, where he made a destructive fire in the 
rear, of a party of the enemy, who had there taken post, and 
were pouring in their fire upon the English ; and charging 
with his usual gallantry, again entered the place, driving 
the Indians before him. But this exploit was not achieved 
without a severe wound. Thus attacked in different direc- 
tions — forced from their covert places, and fast falling by 
the fire of the English the warriors gave up the contest, and 
fled into the wilderness. 

The Indian cabins, amounting to about six hundred, were 
now set on fire, and in a few moments everything in the 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 21 

interior of tlie fort was involved in a blaze, and a scene of 
horror was now exhibited. Several hundred of the Indians 
strewed the ground on all sides ; about three hundred mis- 
erable women and children, with lamentable shrieks, were 
running in every direction to escape the flames, in which 
many of the w^ounded, as w'ell as the helpless old men, were 
seen broiling' and roastino^, and adding; to the terrors of the 
scene by their agonizing yells. The most callous heart 
must have been melted to pity at so aw^ful a spectacle. 

The Indians wdio escaped fled to a cedar swamp not far 
distant, and passed the night without fire, or food, or cover- 
ing, but that afforded by the boughs of trees. By informa- 
tion afterward obtained from a ISrarrao;ansett chief, it was 
ascertained that they lost about seven hundred w^arriors at 
the fort, and three hundred wdio died of their w^ounds ; the 
wdiole number in the place, at the commencement of the 
attack, w\is reckoned at about four thousand. 

After the destruction of the place, Winslow, about sunset, 
commenced his march for Pettyquamscott, in a snow-storm, 
carrying most of his dead and wounded, wdiere he arrived a 
little after midnight, with his worn-down troops. Several 
whose wounds probably were not mortal, overcome with cold, 
died on the march, and the next day thirty-four were buried 
in one grave. Many were severely frozen, and about four 
hundred so disabled that they were unfit for duty. The 
wdiole number killed and wounded was about tw^o hundred ; 
among the former were Captains Davenport, Gardner and 
Johnson, of Massachusetts, and Captains Gallup, Seely, and 
Marshall, of Connecticut ; and Captain Mason, of the latter 
province, and Lieutenant Upham, of the former, afterward 
died of their W'Ounds. 

This expedition against the Narragansetts was conducted 
with spirit, and the attack on the fort exhibited the most 
obstinate valor on the part of the English. Much, no doubt, 
was due to the ofiicers who led the troops to the assault, who 
were men of no common stamp. Though some had been in 
the service the preceding summer, and had seen hard fight- 
ing, they were little acquainted with systematic war.* To 

^•* Captain Mosely had been an old privateer at Jamaica, and probably 
one of the buccaneers. — Hutchinson^ vol. i, p. 262. 



22 " Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 

their bone and nerve, and not to skill were ttey indebted for 
their success, and the soldiers were of the same character. 
But, with more art and prudence, they would have achieved 
a victory with less expense of lives. As the assault was not 
made by surprise, it is obvious it was too precipitate. Had 
the fort been reconnoitered, and the attack made simulta- 
neously on several points, according to a preconcerted plan, 
it might have been carried with a comparatively small loss 
on the part of the assailants. The conflagration of the cab- 
ins, aftei' the enemy had left the j^hce, was an injudicious step. 
Had they been saved, a comfortable lodging would have been 
afforded for the English, the succeeding night, the danger- 
ous march through the snow, incumbered with the wounded, 
avoided, and probably many lives been saved. Captain 
Church readily perceived the consequences of destroying the 
cabins, and when he saw they were to be fired, he remon- 
strated against it, and persuaded the commander to put a 
stop to the measure ; but, being then out of the fort, the 
conflagration became general, before the orders could be 
transmitted to the ofiicers v/ithin. 

We believe it was a sort of Reign-of-Terror successor of 
Sam, who succeeded in describing his own face by the happy 
phrase, " Imagine a tiger pitted with the small-pox," which 
disease was one of the blessings benevolently bequeathed by 
Sam, along with his " first best gift,'' the " strong water," 
to the Indians. 

Well, if you can imagine this New- World personage, who 
instead of handling these Indians like baubles by their scalp- 
locks any longer, had now his marred features seamed with 
the clefts of tomahawk, and spear, and arrow, while his fair 
skin was all bruised, like shattered glass, with the pale scars 
where bullets stunned him, you will see tliat the Young Sam, 
as well as Mirabeau, had suffered a sort of small-pox in his 
heroic vindication of what he called the Rights of Humanity ! 

It will be perceived from the venerable historian's account, 
that Sam, like other babies, made some stupid mistakes in 
this plucky aff'air, but it must be confessed that he could 
verv well afford to make such. 



CHAPTER V. 

Capture of Conancliet and of Miantonomah — Anna-wan, the last captain 
of Philip — Characteristic end of the War. 

But the combat thickens in this war with Philip, who seems 
to have been for " Sam " a foeman well worthy of his steel. 
Some of the most picturesque incidents in modern history- 
are to be found in the accounts of this first struggle. AYhat 
can be finer than this simple story of the capture of Conau- 
chet, the principal chief of the hostile Narragansetts ? He 
was flying from a surprise by a superior force, when, acci- 
dentally plunging into the water, he wet his gun. A swift- 
footed Pequot (a nation friendly with Sam, because one of 
his first acts had been nearly to exterminate them), soon 
overtook the gallant chief, who, rendered hors du combat by 
the accident, surrendered to him without hesitation. Kobert 
Hamton, a young man — a young ' Sam' of twenty-two years, 
coming up, began to question the chief on various subjects, 
to whicli the indignant captive with a look of contempt, 
replied : 

'' You much child — no understand matters of war — let 
your captain come — him I will answer !" 

He was delivered to the English — conveyed to Stonning- 
ton, and, after a sort of trial, condemned to be shot by the 
Moheo-an and Pequot sachems. On being offered his life, 

'23) 



24 " Sam :" or, the History of Mystery. 

provided he would make peace with the English, he rejected 
the proffer. When told of his fate, he complacently replied, 
that he " liked it well — that he should die before his heart 
was soft, or he had said anything unworthy of himself.^' 
This haughty chief was a son of the famous Miantonomah, 
wdio was put to death by Uncas, at Sachem's Plain, and he 
appeared to have possessed, in a high degree, the proud 
spirit of his father. Though treated with such scorn by the 
old sachem, "the young Sam^^ seemed to have been close on 
his heels. 

The murder of Miantonomah, by his obdurate foe, who 
was Sam's fast ally, furnishes, also, a striking illustration 
of the character of the enemy with whom Sam, with all his 
strength, had first to struggle. A narrative of this, although 
slightly a preceding incident, is sufficiently characteristic to 
make it worthy to be given here. 

In 1664: a misunderstanding occurred between Uncas, the 
sachem of the Mohegans, with whom Sam had been in close 
alliance, and Miantonomah, the sachem of the Narragan- 
setts ; and a war broke out between them, into which Sam 
was likely to be drawn. But the rival tribes, being not yet 
possessed of fire-arms, and holding in wholesome recollection 
the first ebullition (namely, the massacre of the Pequods), 
of the wrath of Sam, to which we have referred, and which 
resulted in the almost entire extermination of this the first 
savage tribe which had off'ended him, they came to the wise 
conclusion that it was best to make peace with him, and fight 
out their private quarrel between themselves. 

Miantonomah invaded the Mohegans with nine hundred of 
his warriors. Uncas met him at the head of four hundred 
of his men, on a large plain ; both prepared for action, and 
advanced within gunshot. Before the conflict commenced 
Uncas advanced singly, and thus addressed his antagonist: 
" You have a number of men with you, and so have I with 
me ; it is a great pity that such brave warriors should be 
killed in a private quarrel between us. Come, like a man, 
as you profess to be, and let us fight it out. If you kill me, 
my men shall be yours, but if I kill you your men shall 
be mine." Miantonomah replied, " My men came to fight, 
and they shall fight!" Uncas instantly fell upon the 
ground, and his men poured a shower of arrows upon the 



•• Sam : ■' or, the History of Mystery. 25 

Narragan setts, and with a horrible yell advanced rapidly upon 
them and put them to flight. 

Uncas and his men pressed on and drove them down a 
precipice, scattering them in all directions. Miantonimoh 
was overtaken and seized by Uncas, who, by a shout, recalled 
his furious warriors. About thirtv Xarrao-an setts were slain 
and many wounded, among whom were many noted chiefs. 

Finding himself in the hands of his implacable enemy, 
Miantonimoh remained silent, nor could Uncas, by any art, 
force him to break his sullen mood. " Had you taken me," 
said he to his conqueror, " I should have asked you for my 
life.'^ No reply was made by the indignant chief, and he sub- 
mitted, without a murmur, to his humiliating condition. He 
was afterward conducted to Hartford by his conqueror and 
delivered to the English, by whom he was held in duress 
until liis fate should be determined by the commissioners of 
the colonies. 

After an examination of his case, the commissioners re- 
solved, " That as it was evident that Uncas could not be safe 
while Miantonimoh lived, but, either by secret treachery or 
open force, his life would be constantly in danger, he might 
justly put such a false and blood-thirsty enemy to death ; but 
this was to be done out of the English jurisdiction, and with- 
out cruelty or torture. 

Miantonimoh was delivered to Uncas, and by a number of 
his trusty men marched to the spot where he was captured, 
attended by two Englishmen, to see that no torture was in- 
flicted : and the moment he arrived at the fatal spot, one of 
Uncas's men came up behind, and with his hatchet split the 
skull of the unfortunate chief. It is stated that the savage 
Uncas then cut out a piece of the shoulder of the dead body 
and ate it with triumph, exclaiming : 

" It is the sweetest meat I ever ate ! it makes my heart 
strong ! " The body was buried on the spot and a heap of 
stones piled upon the grave. The place, since that time, has 
been known by the name of Sachem's Plain, and is situated 
in the town of Norwich, Connecticut. 

It was most probable, from witnessing and participating 
in, (with the exception of the Cannibalism, of course,) such 
scenes as these w^e are relating, that the " heart '^ of our 
Infant Prodigy was rapidly made '* strong," too — for it 



2G '^Sam:'^ or, the Histoky of Mystery. 

certainly must have required considerable strength of heart, 
or of something else, perhaps more dubious in its significancy, 
to have enabled the big-fisted innocent to perpetrate the fate 
with which he visited the heroic Annawan, the wisest and 
noblest captain of the murdered Philip. 

This was an achioA^ement of the veritable Captain Church, 
whom we have noticed for his orthodox name, and which 
occurred in this wise. 

Annawan, Philips ' chief captain and counselor, was now 
at the head of the hostile Indians. He was an artful and 
long experienced warrior, and had often declared that the 
English should not take him while alive. After the defeat 
at the swamp, where his comrades were killed, he, with fifty 
or sixty of his best men, took post in Squanaconk Swamp, 
in the southeast part of Eehoboth. Several Indians, from 
his camp, were soon after captured, among whom was an In- 
dian with his daughter. 

By these Church was informed of the situation of Anna- 
wan's camp, and by a stratagem which none but the most 
daring would have adopted, succeeded in capturing the whole 
without resistance. At the head of a small party, conducted 
by the captured Indian and his daughter, who, it appears, 
readily engaged in the attempt. Church, by a cautious ap- 
proach in the evening, reached the edge of a rocky precipice, 
under which Annawan was encamped, and made a critical 
examination of the position. 

A tree had been felled close under the precipice and boughs 
placed against it to form a sort of hut ; fires were burning 
near, pots and kettles boiling, and spits turning, loaded with 
meat , the fire-arms stood near the foot of the rock, resting 
upon a pole supported by crotches and covered with a mat, to 
keep them dry ; the Indians Avere separated into three par- 
ties at small distances, surrounded by a rude abattis, and 
Annawan, with his son, lay reposing very near the arms. 

Having viewed the camp sulficiently, Church and his party 
withdrew and formed his plan for the surprise. Informed by 
his guide that no one was allowed to go out or enter the camp 
except by the precipice, he determined to make his effort in 
that direction. The guide and his daughter, with baskets 
upon thieir backs, as if bringing in provisions, were directed 
to precede Church and his men, while the latter, close in the 



"Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 27 

rear and covered by the shadows of the guides, were to de- 
scend the rocks. The descent was found to be difficult, but 
by letting themselves down by the bushes growing in the 
fissures of the rocks, the party reached the bottom without 
alarming the Indians. 

Church, with a hatchet in his hand, seized the arms at the 
feet of Anna wan, who, starting up on end, cried out " Howahl " 
and despairing of an escape, fell back in his couch. After 
the arms were secured parties went to the other Indians, in- 
forming them their chief was a prisoner, and that if they 
would submit their lives would be spared. The whole readily 
complied with the terms, and all appeared cheerful. 

Church now inquired of Annawan what he had for supper, 
"for," said he, " I have come to sup with you.'' The chief, 
in a loud voice, ordered his women to prepare one, and in- 
quired of his conqueror whether he would choose cow or horse 
beef. Church replied cow beef, and the supper was soon pre- 
pared, and all ate heartily. After suitable guards Ave re 
posted the Indians lay down, and Church attempted a short 
repose near his captured chief ; but neither slept. Some time 
had elapsed in silence, when Annawan arose from his couch 
and slowly retired into the wood. Church, apprehensive of 
some hostile design, drew near to Annawan's son and pre- 
pared for the worst. 

At length, the chief returned with a pack, placed it on 
the ground, and falling on his knees before it, said : 

" Great Captain, you have killed Philip and conquered his 
country — I believe that I and my company are the last who 
war against the English — I suppose the war is ended by 
your means." Then, opening the pack, he drew out a belt 
curiously wrought with wampum in various figures of flowers, 
birds and beasts, which, when hung upon the Captain's shoul- 
ders, reached to his feet. Another belt of wampum was 
next taken out, wrought in the same manner, which was 
worn on the head of the warrior, hanging down the back, to 
which two flags appended, waving behind. A third, with a 
star, and edged with red hair, was taken out, which, when 
hung upon the neck, descended to the breast. 

These, with two horns of glazed powder, and a red cloth 
blanket, constituting the royal dress of Philip, were presented 



28 *'Sam:" or the History of Mystery. 

to Captain Cliurcli, wlio, Annawan said, had "won tliem, 
and lie was liappy in having an opportunity of delivering." 
The remainder of the night was spent in free conversation, 
in which the captured chief recounted his various exploits in 
the present, as well as former wars under Philip's father. 
The next day, Church marched his prisoners to Taunton, 
where he joined those that had been captured when Philip 
was killed, and had been ordered to that town. Annawan, 
with another chief, was perfidiously put to death at Boston, 
not long after. A few more exploits of Captain Church, in 
which a number of the Indians were captured and the few 
remaining tribes submitted, ended the war in this quarter. 

" A few more exploits " of this sort, with a vengeance, and 
" Church," as well as State were likely to become quite as in- 
divisible as Sam had heretofore consistently aspired to make 
them. It was, of course, only because unpleasant to "Cap- 
tain Church," that when " a young minister, godly and zeal- 
ous, having precious gifts," came among them, who dared 
to assert that "the doctrine of persecution for cause of con- 
science is most evidently and lamentably contrary to the 
doctrine of Christ Jesus," they should have banished him, in 
the superflux of christian charity, to wander through the dan- 
gers of a remote, unknown and savage wilderness. Yes, this 
same Sam, concerning whom his locally-canonized historian''--' 
asserts with iteration, passim, that "the purity of religion 
and civil liberty were the objects nearest the wishes of the 
emigrants," turned forth into the howling wilderness, the 
valiant Roger Williams, because he had spoken one of the 
freest and most pregnant truths that ever fell from mortal 
lips. 

There was a charming consistency in this course, for, hav- 
ing set Hooker, their controversial champion, forth to meet 
the startling proposition of "liberty of conscience," and hav- 
ing found him, in their own convictions, foiled by the clear, 
serene intellect of his interlocutor, they concluded it was 
best, for the interests of "Church" and State, to extend the 
grace of starvation on the bleak and forlorn steps of the un- 
tracked southwest to the man who stood ready to die by the 
assertion that " the civil magistrate might not intermeddle, 
even to stop a ' Church ' from infidelity and heresy." Thus 

*■* Bancroft, page 359. 



"Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 29 

^yas dismissed tlie mild and valiant founder of Bliode Island, 
the cliivalric State, wliicli, though small in its area, has, in 
the sentiment from which it sprung, widened its limits to 
the circumference of the world ! that is, a world of recogni- 
tion and of yearning ! For, unfortunately, Earth is not yet 
free. 

How far our friend Sam was disposed to recognize this 
liberty, is admirably displayed in the tone of the following 
harangue, delivered by the amiably belligerent saint, Mr. 
Hooker, that man of " vast attainments," to whom we have 
referred as the special champion pitted against freedom of 
thought and Eoger Williams. 

When the ninety men had assembled to go and roast the 
feeble Pequods, which, it will be remembered, they did most 
effectually, exterminating, with fire and sword, an entire 
nation, this mouthpiece of christian charity thus addressed 
them : 

" Fellow soldiers, countrymen and companions, you are this 
day assembled by the special providence of God ; you are not 
collected by wild fancy, nor ferocious passions. It is not a 
tumultous assembly, whose actions are abortive, or if success- 
ful, produce only theft, rapine, rape and murder ; crimes in- 
consistent with nature's light, inconsistent with a soldier's 
valor. You, my dear hearts, were selected from 3^our neigh- 
bors, by the godly fathers of the land, for your known cour- 
age, to execute such a work. 

''Your cause is the cause of heaven; the enemy have 
blasphemed your God, and slain his servants ; you are only 
the ministers of his justice. I do not pretend that your 
enemies are careless or indifferent: no, their hatred is in- 
flamed, their lips thirst for blood ; they would devour you, 
and all the people of God ; but, my brave soldiers, their guilt 
has reached the clouds ; they are ripe for destruction ; tlieir 
cruelty is notorious : and cruelty and cowardice are always 
united. 

" There is nothing, therefore, to prevent your certain vic- 
tory but their nimble feet, their impenetrable swamps and 
woods ; from these your small numbers will entice them, or 
your courage drive them. I now put the question — Who 
would not light in such a cause? fight with undaunted bold- 
ness? Do vou wish for more encourao'ement ? More I oive 



30 " Sam : ^^ or, the History of Mystery. 

you. Eiclies waken the soldier's sword ; and though you will 
not obtain silver and gold, on the field of victory, you will 
secure what is infinitely more precious ; you vrill secure the 
liberties, the privileges, and the lives of Qlirisfs Qhurch, in 
this New World. 

" You will procure safety for your affectionate wives, safety 
for your prattling, harmless, smiling babes ; you will secure 
all the blessings enjoyed by the people of God in the ordin- 
ances of the gospel. Distinguished was the honor conferred 
upon David, for fighting the battles of the Lord ; this honor, 
! ye courageous soldiers of God, is now prepared for you ! 
You will now execute his vengeance on the heathen ; you 
will bind their kinoes in chains and their nobles in fetters of 
iron. But perhaps some one may fear that a fatal arrow 
may deprive him of his honor. 

" Let every faithful soldier of Jesus Christ be assured, 
that if any servant be taken away, it is merely because the 
honors of this world are too narrow for his reward ; an ever- 
lasting crown is set upon his head ; because the rewards of 
this life are insufficient. March then with Christian cour- 
age, in the strength of the Lord ; march with faith in his 
divine promises, and soon your swords shall find your enemies ; 
soon they shall fall like leaves of the forest under your 
feet." 

Cromwell's troops always went into battle prayerfully, but 
we think this rather peculiar specimen of saintly eloquence, 
would have astonished any Barebones of them all, and yet 
this earliest counselor of Sam, would appear to have been, 
according to his historian, a man of " vast endowments, 
strong will and energetic mind." 



CHAPTER VI. 

The humorous Nathaniel Word — Sam's theory of Government through his 
assistance — Blue Laws. 

After tins, we think we can afford to quote some account 
of the theory of government promulgated by one of the co- 
temporaries — and we may as well suppose — friends of this 
grave didactic teacher, the humorous Nathaniel Word, as he 
is called : 

" Poley-piety," says he, " is the greatest piety in the 
world. To authorize an untruth, by toleration of the State, 
is to build a sconce against the walls of Heaven, to batter 
God out of his chair. Persecution of true Religion and tol- 
eration of false, are the Jannes and Jambres to the Kino-dom 
of Christ, whereof the last is by far the worst. He that is 
willing to tolerate an unsound opinion, that his own may be 
tolerated, though never so sound, will, for a creed, hang 
God's Bible at the devil's oirdle. It is said that men oui^ht 
to have liberty of Conscience, and that it is persecution to 
debar them of it. I can the rather stand amazed than re- 
ply to this ; it is an astonishment that the brains of men 
should be parboiled in such impious ignorance." 

This is the same facetious gentleman who, about this 
time, in conjunction with other and worthy collaborateurs, 
drew up a code of laws for Sam, which he, or rather they, 
designated as the "Body of Liberties," which, it seems, was 
compiled chiefly from the code of Moses, and, though the 
date of their being commended to the general court, was as 
early as the year 1639, let it be mentioned to the everlasting 
credit of Sam, that they were not accepted, even by his un- 
willing innocence, until 1641, and that even then, the 
whole proposed by the amiable originators was not adopted 
bv him without some little variation. 

(31) 



32 " Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

The following' extracts from the laws, ^nll show the pecu- 
liar spirit of Sam's Puritan fathers : 

"Blasphemy, which is the cursing of God hy atheism or 
the like, to be punished with death. 

Idolatry to be punished with death. 

Witchcraft, which is fellowship by covenant with a familiar 
spirit, to be punished with death. 

Consulters with witches not to be tolerated, but either to 
be cut Oil by death or banishment. 

Heresy, which is tlie maintenance of some wicked errors, 
overthrowing the foundation of the Christian religion ; which 
obstinacy, if it be joined with endeavor to seduce others 
thereunto, to be punished with death; because such a heretic, 
no less than an idolater, seeketh to thrust the souls of men 
from the Lord their God. 

To worship God in a molten or graven image, to b3 pun- 
ished with death. 

Such members of the church as do willfully reject to walk, 
after due admonition and conviction, in the Chu7'ch's establish- 
ment, and their Christian admonitions and censures, shall be 
cut off by banishment. 

Whoever shall revile the religion and worship of God, and 
the government of the church, as it is now established, to be 
cut off by banishment. — Co?\ v, 5. 

Willful perjury, whether before the judgment-seat, or in 
private conference, to be punished with death. 

Profaning the Lord's day, in a careless and scornful ne- 
glect, or contempt thereof, to be punished with death. 

lieviling the magistrates in highest rank among us, to 
wit : the governors and council, to be punished with death. — 
1 Kings ii, 8, 9 and 46. 

Kebellious children, whether they continue in riot or 
drunkenness, after due correction from their parents, or 
whether they curse or smite their parents, to be put to 
death. — JUx. xxi, 15, 17; Lev.xx, 9. 

Adultery, which is the defiling of the marriage bed, to be 
punished with death. Defiling a woman espoused, is a kind 
of adultery, and punishable by death of both parties, but if 
a woman be forced, then by the death of the man only. — Lev. 
XX, 10 ; Deut xxii, 22-27. 

Licest, which is the defiling of any near of akin, within 



"Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 33 

tlie degrees prohibited in Leviticus, to be punished with death. 

Whoredom of a maiden in her father's house, kept secret 
till after lier marriage with another, to be punished with 
death. — Beut xxii, 20, 21. 

Man stealing to be punished with death. — Ex. xxi, 16. 

False-witness-bearing to be punished with death.^' 

Concerning the Rights of Inheritance, the following, 
among others, were the laws : 

'' That no free burgess, or free inhabitant of any town, 
shall sell land allotted to him in the town (unless the free 
burgesses of the town give consent unto such sale, or refuse 
to give due price, answerable to what others offer, without 
fraud,) but to some one or other of the free burgesses or free 
inhabitants of the same town. 

That if such lands be sold by any others, the sale shall be 
made with reservation of such rent-charge, to be paid to the 
town stock or treasury of the town, as either the former oc- 
cupiers of the land were wont to pay toward all the public 
charges thereof, whether in church or town ; or at least after 
the rate of three shillings per acre, or some such like pro- 
portion, more or less, as shall be thought fit. 

For the supporting of the worship of God in church fellow- 
ship, it was ordered : ' That wheresoever the lands of any 
man's inheritance shall fall, yet no man shall set his dwell- 
ing-house above the distance of half a mile, or a mile at the 
farthest, from the meeting of the congregation, where the 
church doth usually assemble for the worship of God.' 

If a man have more sons than one, then a double propor- 
tion to be assigned and bequeathed to the eldest son, accord- 
ing to the law of nature ; unless his own demerit deprive 
him of the dignity of his birth. 

Under the head of Trespasses, the following is found : * If 
a man's ox, or other beast, gore or bite, and kill a man or 
woman, whether child or riper age, the beast shall %& killed, 
and no benefit of the dead beast reserved to the owner. But 
if the ox, or beast were wont to push or bite in time past, 
and the owner hath been told of it, and hath not kept him 
in, then both the ox, or beast, shall be forfeited, and the 
OAvner also put to death, or fined to pay what the judges and 
persons damnified, shall lay upon him.' " 



34 '* Sam :'' or, the History of Mystery. 



LESS HEINOUS CRIMES. 

'' Forcing a maid (or rape), was not to be pimislied with 
death by God's law, but with fine or penalty to the father 
of the maid — by marriage of the maid defiled, if she and 
her father consent ; or with corj^oreal punishment of stripes 
for his wrong, as a slander. 

Fornication to be punished with the marriage of the maid, 
giving her a suflicient dowry ; or with stripes, though fewer 
from the equity of the former case. 

In time of tvar, ' men betrothed and not married, or newly 
married, or such as have newly built or planted, and not re- 
ceived the fruits of their labor, and such as are faint-hearted 
men not to be pressed or forced against their wills, to go forth 
to wars. — Deut. xx, 5-8, and xxiv, 5. All wickedness to be 
removed out of the camp, by severe discipline. — Deut. xxiii, 
9, 14. And in war, men of a corrupt and false religion are 
not to be accepted, much less sought for. — 2 Chron. xxv, 7, 
8. "Women, especially such as have lain by man — little 
children and cattle, are to be spared and reserved from 
spoil. — Deut. XX, 14. Some minister to be sent forth to go 
with the army, for their instruction and encouragement.' — 
Deut. XX, 2, 3, 4. 

Every town was to have judges within themselves, who 
were empowered, once in each month, or in three months at 
the farthest, to hear and determine civil as well as criminal 
causes, which were not capital ; reserving liberty of appeal to 
the court of governor and assistants. — Deut. xvi, 18. In 
defect of a law in any case, the decision was to be by the 
word of God. 

An abstract of the laws was published in London, by Wil- 
liam Aspinwall, in 1641. 'Wherein,' says he, 'as in a mir- 
ror, may be seen the wisdom and perfection of Christ's king- 
dom, accommodable to anv state or form of government in 
the world, that it is not antichrisiian and tyrannicaV In an 
address to the reader, he sa3'^s : ' Concerning which model, I 
dare not pronounce that it is without imperfection in every 
particular; yet, this I dare be bold to say, that it far sur- 
passeth all the municipal laws and statutes of any of the 
Gentile nations and corporations under the Cvode of Heaven.'" 



CHAPTER VII. 

Commencement of the Witch-burning Comedy — Exemplary Mr. Philip 
Smith, and the Valdemar Case. 

It must be confessed, after Sam's first " Body of Eights," 
that we can not well be surprised at any reasonable amount 
of fantastic bigotry originating about these times. The 
famous code of "Blue Laws," of which this bill was the 
foundation, seems so much a matter of course, as to have no 
room for comment — while even the "Witch burning" of 
1692, appears only a consequential ebullition of the same 
grim juvenility; as for the " Slave-trade," '■•■' to which Sam 
is now accused of being somewhat opposed, how else could it 
have originated in a New "World, but in this same spirit of 
youthful indiscretion? As for selling the miserable rem- 
nants of the gallant tribes, whom his wholesale massacre 
nearly extirpated into foreign bondage, it was, confessedly 
practical by Sam for two hundred yeai^s, and justified by 
" the sternest morality ! " f 

But as the hanging of the Quakers was the coolest, so the 
hanging of the witches was the most ludicrous feat of the 
young Sam. The stories which the chronicles of that period 
tell of his facetious freaks under the influence of this new pie- 
tistic whim, are truly refreshing and worthy of our recurrence. 

It may be supposed that, having been signally defeated in 
all his attempts at retaliation against the French and In- 
dians in " King William's war," which broke out in 1690, 
and finding little consolation in the easy capture of the in- 
significant fortress of "Port Eoyal," for the tremendous 
rebuft' of his boastful expedition against Quebec, Sam grew 
sulky in his misfortune, and, like other pious souls at such 
times, began to see sights and dream dreams. 

"Bancroft, p. 173, 4. jldem, p. 163. 

(35) 



36 '' Sam : '^ on, the History of Mystery. 

It seems, tliat as early as 16-45, lie liacl been spiritually 
exercised upon the grave subject of " prestigious agency,'^ 
and that divers and sundry bedridden dames, and dim old 
specimens of tlie '' burning and shining lights of Israel" had 
been put to death for the above awfully named crime, for 
Hudibras' ingenious reason, that they were men and women 
who could be better spared to the State. 

But Sam surely outdid himself in Hadley, Connecticut, in 
1684. One of his pet saints, Cotton Mather, tells this 
story — Magnalia, vol. 2, book 6 — and it will be read with not 
the less interest, since all the modern children of Sam will 
recognize in it the original and perfect skeleton of the cele- 
brated " Valdemar case" of Edgar A. Poe exhumed. 

It is given in the exact language of Cotton, wdiich must 
be the excuse for any indelicacies of pliraseology peculiar to 
the ruffo-ed earnestness of the writer and his times : 

CO 

" Mr. Philip Smith, aged about fifty years, a son of emi- 
nently virtuous parents, a deacon of a church in Hadley, a 
member of the General Court, a justice in the country court, 
a selectman for the affairs of the town, a lieutenant of the 
troop, and which crowns all, a man for devotion, sanctity, 
gravity, and all that was honest exceeding exemplary, such 
a man was, in the year 1684, murdered with a hideous witch- 
craft, that filled all those parts of New England with aston- 
ishment. He was, by his oflice, concerned about relieving 
the indigence of a ^\Tetched woman in the town, who being 
dissatisfied at some of his just cares about her, expressed 
herself unto him in such a manner, that he declared him- 
self, thenceforward, apprehensive of receiving mischief at 
her hands. 

" About the beginning of January, he began to be very vale- 
tudinarious, laboring under pains that seemed ischiatic. The 
by-standers could now see in him one ripening apace for an- 
other world, and filled with grace and joy to a high degree. 
He showed such weanedness from, and weariness of the world, 
that he knew not (he said), whether he might pray for his 
continuance here ; and such assurance he had of the Divine 
love unto him, that in raptures he would cry out. Lord, stay 
thy hand, it is enough, it is more than thy frail servant can 
hear. But in the midst of these things he still uttered a 
hard suspicion that the ill-woman wlio had threatened him, 



"Sam:" or, the Histouy of Mystery. 37 

had made impressions with enehaiitmeiits upon him. While 
lie remained vet of a sound mind, he very sedately, but very 
solemnly charged his brother to look well after him, Thouo-h 
he said he noAV understood himself, yet he knew not how he 
might be. But be sure (said he) to have a care of me ; for 
you shall see strange things. There shall be a wonder in 
Hadley ! I shall not be dead, when ^tis thought I am ! He 
pressed this charge over and over, and afterward became de- 
lirious ; upon which he had a speech incessant and voluble, 
and (as was judged) in various languages. He cried out not 
only of pains, but also of pins tormenting, him in several 
parts of his body ; and the attendants found one of them. 

''In his distress, he exclaimed much upon the woman afore- 
said and others, as being seen by him in the room ; and there 
was, divers times, both in that room and over the whole house, 
a strong smell, something like musk, which once particularly 
so scented an apple roasting at the fire, that it forced them 
to throw it away. Some of the young men in the town being- 
out of their wits at the strange calamities thus visited upon 
one of tlieir most beloved neighbors, went three or four times 
to give disturbance unto the woman thus complained of ; and 
all the while they were disturbing her, he was at ease, and 
slept as a weary man ; yea, these were the only times that 
they perceived him take any sleep, in all his illness.'---' Galli- 
pots of medicines, provided for the sick man, were unaccount- 
ably emptied ; and audible scratcliings were made about the 
bed, when his hands and feet lay wholly still and Avere held 
by others. They beheld fire sometimes on the bed, and when 
the beholders began to discourse of it, it vanished awav. 
Divers people actually felt something often stir in the bed, 
at a considerable distance from the man ; it seemed as big as 
a cat, but they could never grasp it ; several trying to lean 
on the bed's head, though the sick man lay wholly still, the 
bed would shake so as to knock their heads uncomfortably. 
A very strong man could not lift the sick man to make him 
lie more easily, though he applied his utmost strength unto 

••'•' Hutchinson says they dragged the woman out of her house — hung her 
up till she was nearly dead, then let her down — rolled her sometime in the 
snow, and at last buried her in it, and there left her ; but it happened she 
revived, and the melancholy man died. — History of Massachusetts, 
vol. 2, p. 24. 



38 "Sam:'^ oil, the History of Mystery. 

it ; and yet lie could go presently and lift a bedstead and 
bed, and a man Ivins; on it, without anv strain to himself at 
all. Mr. Smith dies; the jury that ^dewed his corpse, found 
a swelling on one breast, his privates wounded or burned, his 
back full of bruises, and several holes that seemed made with 
awls. After the opinion of all had pronounced. him dead, his 
countenance continued as lively as if he had been alive : his 
eyes closed as in a slumber, and his nether jaw not falling 
down. 

" Thus he remained from Saturday morning about sunrise, 
till Sunday in the afternoon, when those who took him out 
of bed found him still warm, thouo-h the season was as cold 
as had almost been known in any age ; and a New England 
winter does not want for cold. On the night following, his 
countenance was yet fresh as before ; but on Monday morn- 
ing they found the face extremely tumefied and discolored. 
It was black and blue, and fresh blood seemed running down 
his cheek upon the hairs. Divers noises were also heard in 
the room where the corpse lay ; as the clattering of chairs 
and stools, whereof no account could be given. This was the 
end of so good a man ! " 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Origin of the Witch Persecutions — Character of Cotton Mather — Cot- 
ton Mather and his Invisibles — Parris his associate and conspirator — ■ 
Hanging of George Burroughs — Decline of the delusion and Mather's 
despair — Quaint specimens from Mather's Works — White Slavery. 

Such is the sententious conclusion of this marvelous tale. 
We would suppose that Sam would always step behind the 
AUeghanies to grin, when he heard this story now-a-days ; 
but such is by no manner of means the express fact, for, as 
we hear, spirit rappings, table knockings, dancing chairs, etc., 
seem to constitute quite as real a portion of his pet supersti- 
tions, in these modern times, as ever, and a Judge Edmonds 
appears only to have stepped into the shoes of that quaint 
ancient. Cotton Mather, who, by the way, concludes a philippic 
against those who ventured to doubt conce ruing the doings of 
his pet "Invisibles" and to deny the prestige of his "wan- 
dering demons " in the following words : 

"Flashy people may burlesque these things; but when 
hundreds of the most sober people in a country where they 
have as much mother wit, certainly, as the rest of mankind, 
knoio them to he true; nothing but the absurd and froward 
spirit of sadducism can question them. 

"I have not mentioned so much as one thing that will not 
be justified, if it be required, by the oaths of more consistent 
persons than any that can rule these odd phenomena — nor 
are these a tenth part of the prodigies that fell out among 
the prodigies of New England." 

The reverend old sinner who talks thus has already been 
accessory to the fact — a chief accessory at that — of the burn- 
ing, pressing and hanging of nineteen, beside the arrest and 
imprisonment, with intent to hang, of hundreds more of hu- 
man trophies to his fantastic passion for these " Invisibles;" 

(39) 



40 " Sam : " or, the History or Mystery. 

yet so strong is liis belief in spirits, that lie coolly condemns 
all unbelievers, as possessed of one of liis "wandering de- 
mons," we suppose, under the cabalistic title of the ''spirit 
of sadducism." 

Fie I for shame, Sam, it was bad enough to deal in the 
black art yourself with your pet saints, without condemning 
in this wise, all the world and the rest of mankind to the 
fate of the herd of swine. 

Yes, the darling exploit of himself and his crony Cotton, 
referred to above, was the famous Salem witch burning of 
1692, and it is quite an illustration of the progressive spirit 
of the modern Sam, to observe how interestingly candid this 
same historian, the same who tells us about his first treaty 
with the Indians and its "ceremonies!" has suddenly be- 
come in speaking of this achievement. Hear first how Cot- 
ton Mather was characterized : 

"Was Cotton Mather honestly credulous? Ever ready to 
dupe himself, he limited his credulity only by the probable 
credulity of others. He changes or omits to repeat his state- 
ments Avithout acknowledging error, and with a clear inten- 
tion of conveying false impressions. He is an example how 
far selfishness, under the form of vanity and ambition, can 
blind the higher faculties, stupefy the judgment, and dupe 
consciousness itself. His self-righteousness was complete till 
he was resisted." '•■'•' 

But hear, in the same connection, some titbits of descrip- 
tion from the same source, of one Samuel Parris, of Salem, 
with whom this pleasant business seems to have originated 
in that town. He was, it seems, the minister, and there luitl 
been between him and a part of his peoj^le a strife so bitter 
that it had even attracted the attention of the General Court. 

" The delusion of witchcraft would give the opportunities 
of terrible vengeance. The family of Samuel Parris, liis 
daugliter, a child of nine years, and his niece, a girl of less 
than twelve, began to have strange caprices. He that will 
read Cotton Mather's Book of General Providences, may read 
of what these children suffered ; and Tituba, an Indian female 
servant, who had practiced some wild incantations, being be- 
trayed by her husband, was scourged by Parris, her master, 



' Bancroft, vol 3, page 97. 



" Sam : ^^ or, the History of Mystery. 41 

into confessing herself a witch.'' *' There was no motive, it 
seems, to hang this Tituba" — not at all ; " she was saved as 
a living witness to the reality of witchcraft." As the affair 
proceeded, our friend Parris, backed by "Cotton Mather, who 
had staked his own reputation for veracity on the reality of 
witchcraft, first prayed for a good issue ; and then Brother 
Parris proceeded to demand of his niece, the girl of twelve 
years of age, the names of the devil's instruments who be- 
witched the band of the afflicted ; and then became at once 
informer and witness." 

In those days there was no prosecuting officer, and Parris 
was at hand to question his Indian servants and others, him- 
self prompting the answers and acting as recorder to 
magistrates. 

The recollection of the old controversy in the parish could 
not be forgotten, and Parris, moved by personal malice as 
well as by blind zeal, stifled the accusations of some — such is 
the tostimony of the people of his own village — and at the 
same time, vigilantly promoting the accusations of others, 
was the beginner and procurer of the sore afflictions to Salem 
and the country. Women, the older, the more harmless and 
unprotected the better, seem first to have been the helpless 
objects of his ecclesiastical solicitude, and having hung a score 
or two of them, and one very decrepid old woman of four- 
score, he gained, at length, through impunity, the spiritual 
courage to do that which he had long wished, through such 
bloody inspiration to do, namely: attack a live man^-one 
George Burroughs, who had been his rival. 

Burroughs, it seems, had preached with great unction in 
Salem, and had friends "who desired he should be there." 
He, too, was a skeptic in witchcraft, and " the gallows was to 
be set up, not for those who professed themselves witches, for 
they were carefully protected as the seed of the faith, " but 
for those who rebuked the delusion." So George Burroughs, 
who seems to have been a very fine specimen of a young Sam, 
as one of the chief accusations against him was that he was 
possessed of incredible strength, was condemned to be hanged 
by the evidence of dumb witnesses, and our favorite Cotton 
Mather pronounces the facts of this dumbness and of the in- 
corrigible having given evidence of preternatural muscular 
strength, " enough ! " 
4 



42 '• Sam: " or, The History of Mystery. 

If his spiritual friends of Ngav England had happened to 
have caught Sam himself, in the body, asleep, with his head 
pillowed on the hills, they would have been sure to have 
built a fire in the valleys under him, in the hope to set the 
pines in a blaze and roast him— ungrateful friends ! 

But the execution of the doughty George Burroughs was 
likely to be stayed — first, because it was a novelty to hang a 
minister, and next, because he repeated the Lord's Prayer 
with great clearness on the scaftbld. To be sure, he also 
made an eloquent plea against witchcraft and in defense of 
his innocence, but that went as for nothing until his repeti- 
tion of the prayer, which, it was believed, those possessed of 
the devil were unable to do, touched at last upon their con- 
victions, and "the spectators were like to hinder the execu- 
tion,'' when the amiable Cotton Mather, whose self-love was 
touched by Burroughs' absolute denial that there was or could 
be any such thing as witchcraft, appeared on horseback among 
the crowd, and addressed the people, caviling at the ordin- 
ance of Burroughs as though he had been no true minister, 
insisting on his guilt, and hinting that the devil could some- 
times assume the appearance of an angel of light, thus 
pleading might and main for the hanging, " and the hangmg 
proceeded I " 

Thus this loving couple, Parris and Mather, were sustained, 
and their pet " invisibles " vindicated ! But this amusement 
had to stop somewhere, of course, and poor Cotton Mather, 
in his despair at the loss thereof, " had temptations to atheism 
and to the abandonment of all religion," as he relates 
himself in his diary. What is styled " the inexorable indig- 
nation " of the awakened people, only drove the cunning 
sportsman, Parris, from the village. Terrible punishment 
this, compared with the deeds of the man ; but Sam, about 
these parts, was always "inexorable," according to his pet 
historians, especially when engaged in stringing up old men 
and women to please the whims of two of his parsons, we 
would suffo'est. Amiable Sam I 

But let us take a farewell glance at this delectable Eeverend 
Cotton Mather, D. D., F. K. S. A foAv extracts from his mas- 
ter work, entitled " Magnalia Christ! Americana," will shed 
a flood of light upon his peculiarly amiable character. 

" 'Tis very likely that the evil angels may have a particular 



" Sam : " OR. THE History of Mystery. 43 

energy and employment, oftentimes in miseliiefs done by 
thunder. There (in the air) Satan can do mighty things — 
command much of the magazine of Heaven. Satan let loose 
by God can do wonders in the air. He can raise storms, he 
can discharge the great ordinance of Heaven, thunders and 
lightning ; and by his art can make them more terrible and 
dreadful than they are in their own nature. 'Tis no heresy 
or blasphemy to tliink that the prince of the power of the 
air hath as good share in Chemistry as goes to the making 
of Aurum fulminans. 

" The devil is the prince of the power of the air, and when 
God gives him leave, he has vast power in the air, and 
armies that can make thunder in the air. A great man has, 
therefore, noted it, ' that thunders break oftener on churches 
than any other houses, because the demons have a peculiar 
spite at houses that are set apart for the peculiar service 
of God.' " 

Quitting the direct agency of the devil, the doctor details 
many other prodigies, which he supposes ominous of great 
events, and which he probably imputed to the good angels, 
one or more of whom he believed presided in the air, over 
every ioym and village. A short time prior to Philip's war 
he relates, in a grave and serious manner, that noises were 
heard in the air, similar to the discharge of artillery and 
small arms, accompanied with the beating of drums as in a 
battle. In several places invisible troops of horse are said 
to have been heard, riding through the air. His naval ap- 
parition must not be omitted. A ship sailed from a port in 
New England for Europe, with many passengers, and was 
supposed to be foundered at sea ; but as the event was doubt- 
ful, the people remained in suspense. At length, behold I a 
ship rigged out in every part similar to the one that had 
been lost, entered the harbor of New Haven, and winged its 
way through the air, directly in the face of the wind, until 
it arrivednear the wharf, when its masts and rigging went 
overboard, and many signals of distress were displayed ; but 
soon the whole vanished from the sight. " Now," adds the 
sage, " prepare for the event of those prodigies ; but count 
me not struck with a Livian superstition in reporting prodi- 
gies, for which I have sucli incontestable proofs." Many other 
extraordinary and unaccountable phenomena are also detailed 



44 " Sam : " or, The History of Mystery. 

with great minuteness by the doctor ; but it is believed the 
reader will be satisfied with those already given. 

" In the days of Moses, it seems the deserts were counted 
very much the habitation of devils. Who can tell whether 
the envy of the devils at the favor of God unto men, may 
not provoke them to affect retirement from the sight of popu- 
lous and prosperous regions, except so far as they reckon 
their work of tempting mankind, necessary to be carried on ? 

" Whatever becomes of the observations which we have 
hitherto been making, there has been too much cause to ob- 
serve that the Christians who were driven into the American 
desert, which is now called New England, have, to their 
sorrow, seen Azazel dwelling and raging in very tragical in- 
stances. The devils have doubtless felt a more than ordinary 
vexation, from the arrival of these Christians, with their 
sacred exercises of Christianity in this wilderness. But the 
sovereignty of heaven has permitted them still to remain in 
the wilderness for our vexation as well as their own." 

Saintly Cotton in this manner is dismissed. 

But it seems this was not the only instance in which Sam 
dealt in the black arts ; we have insinuated that in the tem- 
per of his Body of Eights originated the slave trade. Here 
is the direct statement: "A ship of one Thomas Keyser, or 
one James Smith, the latter a member of the church of 
Boston, first brought upon the colonies the guilt of partici- 
pating in the traffic in African slaves.''" They openly sailed 
for Guinea to trade for negroes ;" but here follows the amu- 
sing justification of Puritanism: "But throughout Massa- 
chusetts the cry of justice was raised against them as male- 
factors and murderers, the guilty men were committed for 
the offense, and after advice with the elders the representa- 
tives of the people bearing witness against the lieinous crime 
of man-stealing, ordered the negroes to be restored, at the 
public charge, to their native country, with a letter expressing 
the indignation of the General Court of their wrongs."-j- 

We can hear the stentorian mirth of Sam on hearing this 
ingenious story, shaking the hills far away to the nethermost 
ocean. Ho ! " a letter expressing the indignation of the 
General Court I" Ha ! ha ! who was there to read the letter 
in Guinea ? 

*' Bancroft, page 173 — volume 1st. f Idem, page 173 — vol. 1st, 



'' Sam:" or, The History of Mystery. 45 

But to show that this " bearing witness against the heinous 
crime of man-stealing '^ was in reality something of a joke, 
let us read the following : 

" The practice of selling the natives of North America 
into foreign bondage, continued for nearly two centuries ; and 
even the sternest morality pronounced the sentence of slavery 
and exile on the captives whom the field of battle spared. 
The excellent Winthrop enumerates Indians among his be- 
hests. The articles of the early New England confederacy 
class persons among the spoils of war. A scanty remnant 
of the Pequod tribe in Connecticut, the captives treacherously 
made by Waldron in New Hampshire, the harmless frag- 
ments of the tribe of Annawan, the orphan offspring of King 
Philip himself, were all doomed to the same hard destiny of 
perpetual bondage. The clans of Virginia and Carolina, for 
more than a hundred years, were hardly safe against the kid- 
nappers. The universal public mind was long and deeply 
vitiated." 

But how does it happen that while the clans of Virginia 
and Carolina were comparatively safe against the kidnap- 
pers — these "profligate and luxurious populations" as they 
are uniformly termed by these apologetic scriveners — that the 
saints of the northern plantations of Sam had been recog- 
nizing Indian, as well as Negro slavery for nearly two centu- 
ries ? It is time this question were looked into, and in our 
next we shall endeavor, as the impartial legendary of Sam, 
to ascertain if the " mild and saintly Winthrop," as he is 
elsewhere named, was the only one of the "elect" who even 
enumerated Indians among his bequests. 



CHAPTER IX, 

Slavery White, Black, Red and Yellow — Impudence of the clamor about 
Slavery, raised by those with whom it originated — Slavery old as time — 
Historical, of the different forms of Slavery. 

We promised to take up the subject of slavery, white, 
black, red and yellow, in our last chapter of these antiquities 
of Sam — ^we accordingly invoke these " white spirits and 
black, blue spirits and gray,'' and here they are upon the 
block in form. " What ! what ! what 1" as George III used 
to say. 

Well, Sam, who is much the most powerful despot of the 
two, and a very long way from being " a royal idiot " at 
that, says that this whole subject of Slavery is a mere mess 
of twattle ; that those sleek-haired, round-headed would-be- 
sons of liis, who are making such a fuss about it, are but 
sniveling cubs at the best— and that he does not intend they 
shall continue to worry his curly-haired children of the South 
about this slavery business, without his understanding why. 

He exclaims with a far-reverberating jeer — Whoo-oop ! 
fiddle-faddle, what are you making all this wide-mouthed 
hullabaloo about, you noisy boobies ? 

You are the very scamps who commenced the slave trade, 
and who are first responsible for all its villainies — are you 
not ? You have trafficked in black flesh, in yellow flesh, in 
red flesh, and worst of all, in white flesh — your own flesh 
and blood ! 

You put up a " poor mouth " about slavery, whining saint- 
ly-like, about the rights of man ! You, who have been from 
the beginning the most ruthless, the most unscrupulous 
traffickers in " God's image," the least magnanimous, the 
most mercenary, the most savage of all kidnappers, — you, 
(46) 



" Sam: " ok, The History of Mystery. 47 

who could write an apologetic letter to the chiefs of Congo, 
for stealing their people, to curse a New World with the 
damning incubus of slavery, and then send a man-thief in a 
slave-ship to he the translator of your pious and penitent 
epistle ! 

You impudent fellows, you deserve to he spanked all 
round ! and, if I, Sam, should chance to bring down my heavy 
hand upon you, you will be resolved into cherry-bums (cheru- 
bims) — that is, you shall have nothing left to sit down upon, 
henceforth and forever ! 

Sam thrusts the keen blade of wit into the bladder of 
slavery, when he says in the spirit of learned intelligence : 
Slavery and the slave-trade are older than the records of 
human society ; they are found to have existed wherever the 
savage hunter began to assume the habits of pastoral or 
agricultural life, and, with the exception of Australasia, they 
have extended to every portion of the globe ; they pervaded 
every portion and every nation of civilized antiquity. The 
earliest glimpses of Egyptian history exhibit pictures of 
bondage ; the oldest monuments of human labor on the Egyp- 
tian soil are evidently the results of slave labor. The 
founder of the Jewish nation was a slaveholder and a 
purchaser of slaves. Every patriarch was lord in his own 
household. 

The Hebrews, when they burst the bands of their thral- 
dom, carried with them beyond the desert, the institution of 
slavery. The light that broke from Sinai scattered the cor- 
rupting illusions of polytheism ; but slavery planted itself 
even in the promised land, on the banks of Siloa, near the 
oracles of God. The Hebrew father mio-ht doom his dauo-hter 
to bondage ; the wife and children, and posterity of the 
emancipated slave remained the property of the master and his 
heirs ; and if a slave, though mortally wounded by his master, 
did but languish of his wounds for a day, the owner escaped 
witli impunity, for the slave was his master's money. It is 
even probable that, at a later period, a man's family might 
be sold for the payment of debts. 

The countries that bordered on Palestine were familiar 
with domestic serA^tude ; and, like Babylon, Tyre also, the 
oldest and most famous commercial city of Phenicia, was a 



48 " Sam :" or the History of Mystery. 

market "for the persons of men." The Scythians of the 
desert had already established slavery throughout the plains 
and forests of the unknown north. 

Old as are the traditions of Greece, the existence of 
slavery is older. The wrath of Achilles grew out of a quarrel 
for a slave ; the Grecian dames had crowds of servile attend- 
ants ; the heroes before Troy made excursions into the 
neighboring villages and towns to enslave the inhabitants. 
Greek pirates, roving like the Corsairs of Barbary, in quest 
of men, laid the foundation of Greek commerce ; each com- 
mercial town was a slave-mart, and every cottage near the 
sea-side was in danger from the kidnapper. Greeks enslaved 
each other. The lano-uaoe of Homer was the mother-tono;ue 
of the Helots ; the Grecian city that made war on its neigh- 
bor city exulted in its capture as a source of proht ; the hero 
of Macedon sold men of his own kindred and language into 
hopeless shivery. The idea of universal free labor had not 
been generated. Aristotle had wTitten that all mankind are 
brothers ; yet the thought of equal enfranchisement never 
presented itself to his sagacious understanding. Li every 
Grecian Eepublic slavery was an indispensable element."' 

Though slavery may have been an indispensable element 
in every republic of Greece, Sam does not consider it indis- 
pensable that it should lard the machinery of every repub- 
lic which constitutes a portion of his confederacy. 

After his primitive settlements at Providence and Boston 
had made their fortunes out of the original importations, it 
seemed to be most respectable that they should retire from 
the slave-trade — -ignore it — and, hugging their dollars, turn 
about and denounce the South, who has been their chief pur- 
chasers, and who alone could make it pay. 

This was very nice, indeed, and so particularly conscien- 
tious, when we remember that the maritime adventurers of 
those days, joining the principles of bigots with the bold de- 
signs of pirates and heroes, esteemed the wealth of the 
countries which they might discover, as their rightful plun- 
der, and tlie inhabitants, if Christians, as their subjects ; if 

* For the collocation of the above facts, the author is indebted to the 
historian, Bancroft. 



•' Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 49 

infidels, as their slaves. Even Indians of Hispaniola were 
imported into Spain. Cargoes of tlie natives of the North 
were early and repeatedly kidnapped. 

The coasts of America, like the coasts of Africa, were vis- 
ited by ships in search of laborers, and there was hardly a 
convenient harbor on the whole Atlantic frontier of the 
United States, which was not entered by slavers. The na- 
tive Indians themselves, were ever ready to resist the treach- 
erous merchants ; the freemen of the wilderness, unlike the 
Africans, among whom slavery had existed from immemo- 
rial time, would never abet the foreign merchant, or become 
his factors in the nefarious traffic. Fraud and force remain- 
ed, therefore, the means by which, near Newfoundland or 
Florida, on the shores of the Atlantic, or among the Indians 
of the Mississippi valley, Cortereal and Vasquez de Ay lion, 
Porcallo and Soto, with private adventurers, whose names 
and whose crimes may be left unrecorded, transported the 
natives of North America into slavery in Europe and the 
Spanish West Indies. 

The glory of Columbus himself, did not escape the stain ; 
enslaving five hundred native Americans, he sent them to 
Spain, that they might be publicly sold at Seville.* 

It seems that to Sir John Hawkins, a precursory peer of 
that distinguished lady-philanthropist, the Countess of Suth- 
erland, belongs " the odious distinction of having first inter- 
ested England in the slave-trade." Pious Old England, who 
is now so horrified by the enormities of the traffic, did also, 
it seems, her chivalric devoir in planting the curse upon a 
New World. 

What wonder that she should be si) dramatically and dis- 
interestedly moved now, about exorcising the curse which 
she has entailed upon the juvenile Sam, along with that 
of annihilation upon the Hindoos, opium upon the Chinese, 
imposts upon Australia, cockneyism upon Canada, and friend- 
ship upon France, not to speak of the taxation, and so forth, 
of 76? 

But just hear what this godly Old England did, and you 
will find that the puritanical childi^en of Sam have been the 
fit coUaborateurs of that most reverend and holy dame, who 

Bancroft, page 159, Vol. 1. 



50 " Sam: '■ or, the History of Mystery. 

has historically, and according to a fixed system, coined her 
own, as T\'ell as the heart's blood of others, into gold. 

Conditional servitude under indentures or covenants, had 
from the first, existed in Virginia. The servant stood to his 
master in the relation of a debtor, bound to discharge the costs 
of emigration, by the entire employment of his powers for the 
benefit of his creditor. Oppression early ensued ; men who 
had been transported into Virginia, at an expense of eight 
or ten pounds, were sold sometimes for forty, fifty or even 
threescore pounds. 

The supply of white servants became a regular business, 
and a class of men, nicknamed Spirits, used to delude young- 
persons, servants, and idlers, into embarking for America, 
as to a land of spontaneous plenty. White servants came 
to be a usual article of traffic. They were sold in England 
to be transported, and in Virginia were resold to the highest 
bidder, like they were purchased on shipboard, as men buy 
horses at a fair. In 1672, the average price in the colonies, 
where five years of service were due, was about ten pounds, 
while a negro was worth twenty or twenty-five pounds. So 
usual was this manner of dealinn- in Eno;lishmen, that not 
the Scots only, who were taken in the field of Quebec, were 
sent into involuntarv servitude in New England, but the 
Royalists, prisoners of the battle of Worcester, and the 
leaders in the insurrection of Penruddoc, in spite of the re- 
monstrance of Haselrig and Henry Vane, were shipped to 
America. 

At the corresponding period, in Ireland, the crowded ex- 
portation of Irish Catholics was a frequent event, and was 
attended by aggravations, hardly inferior to the usual atro- 
cities of the African slave-trade. In 1685, when nearly a 
thousand of the prisoners condemned for participating in the 
insurrection of Monmouth, were sentenced to transportation, 
men of influence at court, with rival importunity, scrambled 
for the convicted insurgents as a merchantable commodity ! 



CHAPTER X. 

Slavery brought iiome to the Children of " Sam " — Pure Domestic Aspect — 
Original existence in all the Colonies — Sam's Slave Panic in New York. 

"Sam" says, with a dry laugh, "Ha! ha! my Bigots 
of the North ! — you see by this time, that Slavery has not been 
the peculiar crime of my southern children ! Jew and Gen- 
tile, Greek, Heathen, Infidel, and all have alike been par- 
ticipators in this world-entailed crime — if you must have it 
such — and that, therefore, to say the most of it, you can not 
make i b appear to have originated with what you self-righte- 
ously term the God-forsaken adventurers of the South. Why, 
as for that, the first one of the colonies which made the pro- 
hibition of your own first pet staples, Kum and Slaves, a fun- 
damental law of its original organization, happens to have 
been a southern colony — Georgia. 

Yes, the mild and amiable Oglethorpe, who, in England 
had been a prominent champion of the repeal of the law of 
imprisonment for debt, and who was the founder of Georgia, 
obtained, by his influence with the trustees of the company, 
not only the prohibition of Rum and Slaves, but also a recog- 
nition of religious toleration for his colony — that same reli- 
gious toleration which you had banished the great and good 
Roger Williams for even advocating ! Among the first emi- 
grants sent over to Savannah were forty Jews, whom you 
would no doubt have drawn and quartered had they attempted 
to effect a lodgment in your godly Plymouth ! To be sure, 
they excluded Catholics at the same time, as was very natural, 
because it was from their savage persecutions that the Lu- 
therans and Moravians — who constituted the bulk of the ear- 
liest emigrations — had fled for refuge in the wilds of the 
savannah. 

(51) 



52 *'Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

But, as you Bound Heads seem to have entirely forgotten 
tlie facte of your own early history in relation to this same 
subject of Slavery, it is time you were reminded of it, once 
for all, and you shall have the details in full, from the pen 
of your own peculiar historian, Hildreth — who, whatever may 
be his occasional brusqueries of manner when speaking of men 
peculiarly obnoxious for their Southernisms, is the only really 
competent national Historian you have ever produced. He 
opens this subject — which he has so ably treated — with a 
snarl very characteristic of the latitude of Boston, by pleas- 
antly remarking that the results of their own idleness, inex- 
perience, and incapacity, joined to the inevitable obstacles 
which every new settlement must encounter, were obstinately 
ascribed by the inhabitants of Georgia to that wise but inef- 
fectual prohibition of slavery, one of the fundamental laws of 
the province. The convenience of the moment caused future 
consequences to be wholly overlooked. Every means was 
made use of to get rid of this prohibition. Even Whitfield 
and Habersham, forgetful of their former scruples, strenu- 
ously pleaded with the trustees in favor of slavery, under the 
old pretense of propagating in that way the Christian religion. 
"Many of the poor slaves in America," wrote Habersham, 
''have already been made freemen of the heavenly Jerusa- 
lem." The Salzburgers for a long time had scruples, but 
were reassured by advice from Germany : "If you take slaves 
in faith, and -with intent of conducting them to Christ, the 
action will not be a sin, but may prove a benediction." Thus, 
as usual, the religious sentiment and its most disinterested 
votaries were made tools of by avarice for the enslavement 
of mankind. Habersham, however, could hardly be included 
in this class. Having thrown off the missionary', and estab- 
lished a mercantile house at Savannah, the first, and for a 
long time the only one there, he was very anxious for ex- 
portable produce. The counselors of Georgia, for the presi- 
dent was now so old as to be quite incapacitated for business, 
winked at violatious of the law, and a considerable number 
of negroes had been already introduced from Carolina as hired 
servants, under indentures for life or a hamdred years. The 
constant toast at Savannah was " The one thing needful," 
by which was meant negroes. The leading men, both at 



"Sam:'^ or the History of Mystery. 53 

Inverness and Ebenezer, who opposed the introduction of 
slavery, were traduced, threatened and persecuted. (1749.) 

Thus beset, the trustees yielded at last, on condition that 
all masters, under ' a mulct of £5/ should be obliged to 
compel their negroes ' to attend at some time on the Lord's 
day for instruction in the Christian religion' — the origin, 
doubtless, of the peculiarly religious character of the negroes 
in and about Savannah. The trustees also abolished the 
restrictions hitherto existing on the tenure and transfer of 
lands. The aged Stevens having given up his office to Henry 
Parker, a colonial Assembly was called, not to legislate, for 
that power belonged solely to the trustees, but to advise and 
consult. Parker was presently succeeded by Patrick Graham. 

By custom or by statute, whether legal or illegal, slavery 
existed as a fact in every one of the Anglo-American colonies. 
The soil and climate of New England, made slaves of little 
value there, except as domestic servants. In 1701, the town 
of Boston had instructed its representatives in the General 
Court, to propose ' putting a period to negroes being slaves.' 
About the same time, Sewall, a judge of the Superior Court, 
afterward chief justice of Massachusetts, published ' The 
Selling of Joseph,' a pamphlet tending to a similar end. 
But these scruples seem to have been short-lived. With the 
increase of wealth and luxury, the number of slaves in- 
creased also. There were in Massachusetts, in 1754, as ap- 
pears by an official census^ twenty-four hundred and forty-eight 
negro slaves over sixteen years of age, about a thousand of 
them in Boston — a greater proportion to the free inhabitants 
than is to be found at present in the city of Baltimore. Con- 
necticut exceeded Massachusetts in the ratio of its slave popu- 
lation, and Kliode Island exceeded Connecticut. Newport, 
grown to be the second commercial town in New England, 
had a proportion of slaves larger than Boston. The harsh 
slave laws in force in tlie more southern colonies, were 
unknown, however, in Nevf England. Slaves were regarded 
as possessing the same legal rights as apprentices ; and mas- 
ters, for abuse of their authority, were liable to indictment. 
Manumissions, however, were not allowed, except upon securi- 
ty, that the freed slaves should not become a burden to the 
parish. (1750). 



54 ^'Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

In the provinces of New York and New Jersey, negro 
slaves were employed, to a certain extent, not only as domes- 
tic servants, but as agricultural laborers. In the city of New 
York, they constituted a sixth part of the population. The 
slave code of that province was hardly less harsh than that 
of Virginia. 

In Pennsylvania the number of slaves was small, partly 
owing to the ample supply of indented white servants, but 
partly, also, to scruples of conscience on the part of the 
Quakers. In the early days of the province, in 1688, some 
German Quakers, shortly after their arrival, had expressed 
the opinion that slavery was not morally lawful. George 
Keith had borne a similar testimony ; but he was disowned as 
schismatic, and presently abandoning the society, was de- 
nounced as a renegade. When Penn, in 1699, had proposed 
to provide by law for the marriage, religious instruction, and 
kind treatment of slaves, he met with no response from the 
Quaker Legislature. In 1712, to a petition in favor of 
emancipating the negroes, the Assembly replied, ' that it 
was neither just nor convenient to set them at liberty.' 
They imposed, however, a heavy duty, in effect prohibitory, 
and intended to be so, on the importation of negroes. This 
act, as we have seen, was negatived by the crown. The pol- 
icy, however, was persevered in. New acts, passed from 
time to time, restricted importations by a duty first of five, 
but lately reduced to two pounds per head. The Quaker 
testimony against slavery, was renewed by Sandiford and 
Lay, who brought with them to Pennsylvania, a strong de- 
testation of the system of servitude which they had seen in 
Barbadoes in all its rigors. The same views began presently 
to be perseveringly advocated by Woolman and Benezet, 
whose labors were not without eftect upon the Quakers, some 
of whom set the example of emancipating their slaves. 
Pranklin was also distinguished as an early and decided ad- 
vocate for emancipation. The greater part of the slaves of 
Pennsylvania were to be found in Philadelphia. A fourth 
part of the inhabitants of that city were persons of African 
descent, including many, however, who had obtained their 
freedom. (1750). 

In the tobacco growing colonies, Maryland, Virginia, and 



" Sam : ^' or, the History of Mystery. 55 

North Carolina, slaves constituted a third part or more of 
the population. In South Carolina, where rice was the prin- 
cipal produce, they were still more numerous, decidedly out- 
numbering the free inhabitants. (1750.) 

The slave code of South Carolina, as revised and re-enact- 
ed in a statute still regarded as having the force of law, had 
dropped from its phraseology something of the extreme 
harshness of the former act. It contained, also, some pro- 
visions for the benefit of the slaves, but, on the whole, was 
harder than before. ' Whereas,' says the preamble to this 
act, (1740), ' in his majesty's plantations in America, slavery 
has been introduced and allowed, and the people commonly 
called negroes, Indians, mulattoes, and mestizoes have been 
deemed absolute slaves, and the subjects of i^roperty in the 
hands of particular persons, the extent of whose power over 
such slaves, ought to be settled and limited by positive laws, 
so that the shives may be kept in due subjection and obedi- 
ence, and the owners and other persons having the care and 
government of slaves, may be restrained from exercising too 
great rigor and cruelty over them, and that the public peace 
and order of this province may be preserved,' it is therefore 
enacted that ' all negroes, Indians mulattoes and mestizoes (free 
Indians in amity with this government, and negroes, mulattoes, 
and mestizoes who are now free, excepted), wlio now are, or 
shall hereafter be in this province, and all their issue and 
offspring born and to be born, shall be, and they are hereby 
declared to be and remain forever hereafter absolute slaves, 
and shall follow the condition of the mother, and shall be 
claimed, held, taken, reputed, and adjudged in law to be 
chattels personal.' This provision, which deprives the mas- 
ter of the power of manumission, and subjects to slavery the 
descendant of every slave woman, no matter how many de- 
grees removed, nor who may have been tlie male ancestor, 
nor what color, was subsequently adopted in the same terms, 
by the Georgia Legislature, as the law of that province. A 
suit for freedom might be brought by any white man who 
chose to volunteer for that purpose on behalf of any person 
claimed as a slave. But, in all such suits, ' the burden of 
proof shall lie upon the plaintiff, and it shall always be pre- 
sumed that every negro, Indian, mulatto, and mestizo is a 
slave unless the contrary can be made to appear, the Indians 



56 "Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

in amity with this government excepted, in which case the 
burden of proof shall lie on the defendant.' Masters were 
forbidden to allow their slaves to hire their own time ; to let 
or hire any plantation ; to possess any vessel or boat ; to keep 
or raise any horses, cattle, or hogs ; to engage in any sort 
of trade on their own account ; to be taught to write ; or to 
have or wear any apparel (except livery servants) ' finer 
than negro cloth, dufhls, kerseys, osnabergs, blue linen, 
check linen, or coarse garlix or calicoes, checked cotton or 
Scotch plaid ;' and any constable seeing any negro better 
clad, might seize the clothes and appropriate thein to his own 
use. It was forbidden to work slaves on Sundays, under a 
penalty of five pounds ; for working them more than fifteen 
hours daily in summer, and fourteen in winter, a like pen- 
alty was imposed. Upon complaint to any justice that any 
master does not provide his slaves with sufficient ' clotliing, 
covering, or food,' the justice might make such order in the 
premises as he saw fit, and fine the master not exceeding 
twenty pounds. ' And whereas cruelty is not only highly 
unbecoming those who profess themselves Christians, but 
odious in the eyes of all men who have any sense of virtue 
and humanity,' the fine for the mllful murder of a slave 
was increased to £700 currency, with incapacity to hold any 
office, civil or military, and in case of inability to pay the 
fine, seven years' labor in a frontier garrison or the Charles- 
ton workhouse. For killing a slave in the heat of passion, 
for maiming, or inflicting any other cruel punishment ' other 
than by whipping or beating with a horsewhip, cowskin, 
switch, or small stick, or by putting in irons or imprison- 
ment,' a fine of X320 was imposed ; and in case of slaves 
found dead, maimed, or otherwise cruelly punished, the mas- 
ters were to be held guilty of the act unless they make tlie 
contrary appear. (1750.) 

No statute of North Carolina seems ever to have been de- 
clared who were or miglit be held as slaves in that province, 
the whole system being left to rest on usage, or the supposed 
law of England. But police laws for the regulation of slaves 
were enacted similar to tliose of Virginia, and the Virginia 
prohibition was also adopted of manumissions, except for 
meritorious services, to be adjudged by the governor and 
council. (1741.) 



" Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 57 

Among the ten acts of the late Virginia revision rejected 
by the king, was one (1751) * concerning servants and slaves/ 
a consolidation and re-enactment of all the old statutes on 
that subject, the substance of which has been given in former 
chapters. It appears from the address, already quoted, of the 
Assembly to the king (1752) on the subject of this veto, to 
have been a standing instruction to the governor not to con- 
sent to the re-enactment of any law once rejected by the king, 
without express leave first obtained upon representation of 
the reasons and necessity for it. Such a representation was 
accordingly made by the Assembly as to eight of the ten re- 
jected laws. The act concerning servants and slaves was not 
of this number (1753), yet we find it re-enacted, within a year 
after, in the very same words. Why the royal assent had been 
refused does not appear. It could hardly have been from any 
scruples on the subject of slavery (1750) ; for among the acts 
expressly approved was one ' for the better government of 
Indians, negroes and mulattoes,' which provided that the 
death of a slave under extremity of correction should not be 
esteemed murder, unless it were proved by the oath of at 
least one ' lawful and credible witness ' that the slave was 
willfully and maliciously killed; persons indicted for the 
murder of a slave, and found guilty of manslaughter only, 
to ' incur no forfeiture or punishment.' Slaves set free with- 
out leave from the governor and council, might be sold at 
public auction by the churchwardens of any parish in which 
such freed slave might reside for the space of a month. The 
same statute also continued the authority formerly given to 
the county courts to ' dismember ' disorderly slaves ' notori- 
ously guilty of going abroad in the night, or running away 
and lying out,' and not to be reclaimed by the common 
methods — an authority very much abused, if we may judge 
by a subsequent statute, which declares this dismembering 
' to be often disproportioned to the offense, and contrary to 
the principles of humanity,' and prohibits the castration of 
slaves except on conviction of an attempt to ravisli a white 
woman. (1769.) 

The negroes imported from the African coast, whose de- 
scendants now constitute a sixth part of the population of the 
United States, were not by any means of one nation, language, 
or race. A single slave ship often brought to America a 



58 " Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

great variety of languages and customs, a collection of un- 
fortunate strangers to eacli other, or perhaps of hereditary 
enemies, ^\ith no common bond except tliat of servitude. 
Hence a want of imion and sympathy among the slaves, 
which, joined to their extreme ignorance and simplicity, pre- 
vented co-operation, and rendered it easy to suppress such 
outbreaks as occasionally occurred. (1750.) Even in complexion 
and physiognomy, the most obvious characteristic of the ne- 
groes, there were great differences. Some were of a jet 
black, often with features approaching tlie European standard ; 
others of a mahogany or reddish black, with features less 
shapely and regular ; and others yet of a tawny yellow, mth 
flat noses and projecting jaws — an ugliness often, but erro- 
neously, esteemed characteristic of all the African races, but 
which seems to have been principally confined to the low and 
swampy grounds about the Delta of the Niger. The negroes 
marked by these shapeless features were noted also for in- 
domitable capacity of endurance, and were esteemed, therefore, 
the best slaves. Intermixture among themselves, and a large 
infusion of European blood, have gradually obliterated these 
differences, or made them less noticeable. 

Contrary to wliat happened in the West Indies, in the 
Anglo-North American provinces the natural increase of the 
slave population was rapid. The women were seldom put to 
the severer labors of the field. The long winter secured to 
both sexes a season of comparative rest. Such was the abun- 
dance of provisions, that it was cheaper to breed than to buy 
slaves. Those born in America, and reared up on the plan- 
tations, evidently surpassed the imported Africans both 
physically and intellectually. Of the imported slaves a few 
were Mohammedans, among whom were occasionally found 
persons of some education, who knew Arabic, and could read 
the Koran. But the great mass were pagans, in a condition 
of gross barbarism. They brought with them from Africa 
many superstitions, but these, for the most part, as well as 
the negro languages, very soon died out. 

Zealous for religion as the colonists were, very little effort 
was made to convert the negroes, owing partly, at least, to 
a prevalent opinion that neither Christian brotherhood nor 
the law of England would justify the holding Christians as 
slaves. Nor could repeated colonial enactments to the contrary 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 59 

entirely root out this idea, for it was not supposed that 
a colonial statute could set aside the law of England. What, 
precisely, the English law might he on the subject of slavery, 
still remained a matter of doubt. Lord Holt had expressed 
the opinion, as quoted in a previous chapter, that slavery 
was a condition unknown to English law, and that every 
person setting foot in England thereby became free. Ameri- 
can planters, on their visits to England, accompanied by 
their slaves, seem to have been annoyed by claims of free- 
dom set up on this ground, and that, also, of baptism. To 
relieve their embarrassments, the merchants concerned in 
the American trade had obtained a written opinion from 
Yorke and Talbot, the attorney and solicitor-general of that 
day. (1729.) According to this opinion, which passed for 
more than forty years as good law, not only was baptism no 
bar to slavery, but negro slaves might be held in England 
just as well as in the colonies. The two lawyers by whom 
this opinion was given, rose afterward, one of them to be 
chief justice of England, and both to be chancellors. Yorke, 
sitting in the latter capacity with the title of Lord Hard- 
wicke (1749), had recently recognized the doctrine of that 
opinion as sound law. (Pearce vs. Lisle, Ambler, 76.) He 
objects to Lord Holt's doctrine of freedom, secured by set- 
ting foot on English soil, that no reason could be found 
' why slaves should not be equally free when they set foot 
in Jamaica or any other English plantation.' ' All our 
colonies are subject to the laws of England, although, as to 
some purposes, they have laws of their own.' His argument 
is, that if slavery be contrary to English law, no local en- 
actments in the colonies could give it any validity. To 
avoid overturning slavery in the colonies, it was absolutely 
necessary to uphold it in England. At a subsequent period, 
as we shall presently see, the law of England was definitively 
settled in favor of liberty, the extra-judicial opinion of Tal- 
bot and Hardwicke being set aside by a solemn decision of 
the King's Bench. (1750.) 

The remaining exclusive privileges of the Eoyal African 
Company having expired, the English government undertook 
to maintain, at their own expense, the forts and factories on 
the African coast ; and thus the slave trade was thrown open 
to free competition. The recent introduction of the cultivation 



60 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

of coffee into tlie West Indies, and the increasing consumption 
in Europe of colonial produce, gave fresh impulse to this 
detestable traffic, and it now began to be carried on to an 
extent which soon roused against it the indignant humanity 
of an enlightened age. The West Indies were the chief 
market ; but the imports to Virginia and the Carolinas were 
largely increased. New England rum, manufactured at 
Newport, was profitably exchanged on the coast of Africa 
for negroes, to be sold in the southern colonies ; and vessels 
sailed on the same business from Boston and New York. 
The trade, however, was principally carried on by English 
merchants of Bristol and Liverpool. Except in Pennsylvania, 
the colonial duties levied on the import of slaves were in- 
tended chiefly for revenue. They were classed in the in- 
structions to the royal governors with duties on British goods, 
as impediments to British commerce not to be favored. On 
this ground several of these acts received the royal veto. 
Yet Virginia, as we have seen, was allowed to impose such 
duties as she pleased, on the sole condition of making them 
payable by the buyer. (1750.) 

The importation of indented white persons, called ' ser- 
vants,' or sometimes ' redemptioners,' in distinction from 
negroes, who were known as slaves, was still extensively 
carried on, especially in the middle colonies. The colonial 
enactments for keeping these servants in order, and especially 
for preventing them from running away, were often very 
harsh and severe. They were put, for the most part, in 
these statutes, on the same level with the slaves, but their 
case in other respects was very different. In all the colonies, 
the term of indented service, even where no express contract 
had been entered into, was strictly limited by law, and, ex- 
cept in the case of very young persons, it seldom or never 
exceeded seven years. On the expiration of that term, these 
freed servants were absorbed into the mass of white inhabit- 
ants, and the way lay open before them and their children 
to wealth and social distinction. One of the future signers 
of the Declaration of Independence was brought to Pennsyl- 
vania as a redemptioner. In Virginia, at the expiration of 
his term of service, every redemptioner, in common with 
other immigrants to the colony, was entitled to a free grant 
of fifty acres of land, and in all the colonies certain allowances 



"Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 61 

of clothing were required to be made by tbe late masters. 
Poverty, however, and want of education on the part of the 
mass of these freed men, kept them too often in a subser- 
vient condition, and created in the middle as well as in the 
southern colonies, an inferior order of poor wdiites, a dis- 
tinction of classes, and an inequality in society almost un- 
known in republican New England. 

The position of the Africans was much more disastrous. 
Not only were they servants for life, which possibly the law 
of England might have countenanced, but by colonial statute 
and usage this servitude descended to their children also. 
The few set free by the good-will or the scruples of their 
masters seemed a standing reproach to slavery, and an evil 
example in the eyes of the rest. They became the objects 
of a suspicious legislation, which deprived them of most of 
the rights of freemen, and reduced them to a social position 
very similar, in many respects, to that which inveterate 
prejudice in many parts of Europe has fixed upon the Jews. 
Hence, too, legislative restraints on the bounty or justice of 
the master in manumitting his slave. 

Intermarriage with the inferior race, whether bond or free, 
was prohibited b}^ religion as a sin, by public opinion as a 
shame, and by law as a crime. But neither law. Gospel, nor 
public opinion could prevent that amalgamation which, ac- 
cording to all experience, inevitably and extensively takes 
place whenever two races come into that close juxtaposition 
which domestic slavery of necessity implies. Falsehood and 
liypocrisy took the place of restraint and self-denial. The 
Dutch, French, Spanish, and Portuguese colonists, less filled 
with pride of race, and less austere and pretending in their 
religious morality, esteemed that white man mean and cruel, 
who did not, so far as liis ability permitted, secure for his 
colored children emancipation and some pecuniary provision. 
Laws were even found necessary, in some of those colonies, to 
limit what was esteemed a superfluity of parental tenderness. 
In the Anglo-American colonies, colored children were hardly 
less numerous. But conventional decorum, more potent than 
law, forbade any recognition by the father. They followed 
the condition of the mother. They were born, and they re- 
mained slaves. European blood was thus constantly trans- 
ferred into servile veins ; and hence, among the slaves sold 



62 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

and bought to-day in our American markets, may be found 
tbe descendants of men distinguished in colonial and national 
annals/ 

In 1741, says Hildreth, tbe city of New York became the 
scene of a cruel and bloody delusion, less notorious, but not 
less lamentable than the Salem witchcraft. That city now 
contained some seven or eight thousand inhabitants, of whom 
twelve or fifteen hundred were slaves. Nine fires in rapid 
succession, most of them, however, merely the burning of 
chimneys, produced a perfect insanity of terror. An indented 
servant woman purchased her liberty and secured a reward 
of £100, by pretending to give information of a plot formed 
by a low tavern-keeper, her master, and three negroes to 
burn the city and murder the whites. This story was con- 
firmed and amplified by an Irish prostitute convicted of a 
robbery, who, to recommend lierself to mercy, reluctantly 
turned informer. Numerous arrests had been already made 
among the slaves and free blacks. Many others followed. 
The eight lawyers who then composed the bar of New York, 
all assisted by turns on behalf of the prosecution. The 
prisoners, who had no counsel, were tried and convicted upon 
most insufficient evidence. The lawyers vied with each other 
in heaping all sorts of abuse on their heads, and chief jus- 
tice Delancey, in passing sentence, vied with the lawyers. 
Many confessed, to save their lives, and then accused others. 
Thirteen unhappy convicts were burned at the stake, eighteen 
were hanged, and seventy-one transported. (1741.) 

The war and the religious excitement then prevailing, 
tended to inflame the yet hot prejudices against Catholics. 
A non-juring schoolmaster, accused of being a Catholic priest 
in disguise, and of stimulating the negroes to burn the city 
by promises of absolution, was condemned and executed. 
Glutted with blood, and their fright appeased, the citizens 
began at last to recover their senses. The informers lost 
their credit, and a stop was put to these judicial murders. 

One of your periodical frights ! says Sam. Now will you 
hush about slavery, once and forever ? You deserve to be 
spanked and put to bed — the whole of you ! 



CHAPTER XI. 

Puritan Sam and Individuality — "Day" first Printer — abuse of the Virginia 
Settlers in the "Yellow covered Literature'' of History — Who were the 
true Discoverers and Settlers of America? 

But enough of Puritanical Sam for the present. We 
have seen him to be a strange compound of manhood and 
cant, a bigot, a bully, a hero and a savage, as well as the 
proud originator of the grave problem of "individuality," or 
" the one man development," which made him with so much em- 
phasis, " Soldier, Slaver, Psalmist, Cobler, Farmer, Persecutor, 
Parson, Legislator and good Citizen alike." This idea, 
which however little understood in Europe, and especially in 
Prance, constitutes the basis of the much abused idea of 
" Liberty and Equality." But the Plymouth Sam was not 
the only hero of progressive humanity, although he has 
managed, from the fact of having had the earliest printing- 
press, to have been systematically and pertinaciously his own 
glorificator, in asserting what amounts to as much. 

The first printing in America was done in New England, 
in 1639, by one " Day," who was very properly named as the 
originator of Light. The proprietor of this first press, was 
characteristically a clergyman, who was quite as characteris- 
tically named " Glover ;" but unluckily, he died on the pas- 
sage. It seems somewhat significant, that the first thing 
printed should have been the " Freeman's Oath ;" the second 
an almanac ; the third, an edition of the Psalms. Since this 
important event, it is quite natural that most of the Psalm- 
ody of Puritanical Sam, should have been in and for his own 
lion or. 

Having, for a long time, the exclusive control of the 
" Day," of the printing-press, he has managed to make, as 

(63) 



64: *' Sam: '' or, the History or Mystery. 

much as possible, a dark lantern of it, casting its liglit only 
wliere it best suited liis interest and bigotries. 

This may be well enough says Sam, but while he has been 
thus assiduously staining paper in his own glorification, my 
Southern children have been producing the material out of 
which this same paper is manufactured ; and, w^atching his 
round-headed brother manufacture a " character ^' for him- 
self, has been content with producing orators, statesmen, 
generals, and presidents for him. 

The first adventurers who settled St. Augustine in Florida, 
and Jamestown in Virginia, Sam continues, have been meth- 
odically characterized by my Quaker-hanging descendants, 
as " dissolute and ' sensual ^ vagabonds, who left their re- 
spective countries ' for their country's good.' " But zve, Sam, 
have never been able to discover, why the adventurers who 
dared the perils of storm, and sea, and Avilderness in the 
South, were not as good and true men — the nasal twang left 
out — as those who presume they have performed the same 
feats at the North. 

Sam thinks it is about time that this ridiculous cant should 
be rebuked. There is an old fable which tells us that, once 
upon a time, there came a question between the lion and a 
man, as to which should rank superior. The man, in proof 
of his argument, made a sculpture of a human figure astride 
of a lion; the lion's answer was: "Make me the sculptor, 
and then you would be underneath my paws." 

Thus it is the Southern Sam has never been an illustrator 
of himself in idle words, but an actor, a power, and a gov- 
erning presence ; and therefore it is, that Puritanical Sam 
makes a harmonican of his nose, in speaking of his " disso- 
lute " Southern brother. We say harmonican, because it is 
an instrument invented since the ''Blue Laws," or else he 
would not dare to play upon that even — if it had been a 
harp now, it would have been all legitimate. 

The best of the joke is, says Sam, that these patronizing 
inventors of the "yellow-covered Literature" of History, 
who have thus systematically stigmatized a portion of my 
Family, seem to be utterly oblivious of the fact, that the 
Southern races are most intimately connected with the prim- 
itive history of my small plantation, and to them belong the 
undivided honor, not only of discovering a New World, but 



" Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 65 

of settling it with a people who had something else in their 
brains beside the menial obscurities of bigotry. 

Did Columbus aftect codfish and psalmody when he discov- 
ered a New World? Xo ! Sam says that ''Columbus, in a 
rich dress, and with a drawn sword, soon after landed with 
his men, with whom having kneeled and kissed the ground 
with tears of joy, he took formal possession of the island, in 
the name of Queen Isabella, his patroness.'^ 

Yes ! the discoverer of a New World, first kneeled to his 
God, then kissed the face of his mother earth, as all her 
truest, proudest children would have done in such conditions. 
lie ha^l no voice just then — the mighty minstrelsy of winds 
and waves filled all the air, and he who could invent a world 
before Yankeedom had been invented, was mute. 

But to Sam, it has always seemed that one of the import- 
ant institutions of Puritanism, has been a '' clamor.^^ He 
will not undertake to say " sound for fury," but its signifi- 
cant opposite. * 

The peerless Knight, Sir Walter Kaleigh, was properly 
the founder of North Carolina and Virginia ; he, the most 
chivalrous, the most learned of adventurers, the genial and 
accomplished historian of the old world, was naturally among 
the chief architects of a New. 

Ealeigh, whose ample means and unconquerable energy, 
were lavished upon the sublimest idea which ever possessed 
the minds of men — the occupation of a New World — Raleigh, 
the lover of "the great Queen,'' the " Gloriana" of Spen- 
cer — the master intellect of the greatest period of English 
history — the Shakspearian of deeds — may assuredly be with 
justice, characterized as the chief promoter of " sensual and 
dissolute vagabondism" in the settlement of a region, which 
has since been so unfortunate as to have produced a Wash- 
ington, a Patrick Henry, a Jefferson, a Madison, a Monroe, 
et ii omnes — not to speak of Randolph, Old Rough and 
Ready, etc. 

Unlucky Raleigh ! were your cavaliers all actually re- 
leased from the galleys and prisons of Europe ? Let us hear 
the story of the chiefest ignoble among them. We give the 
simple narrative, and leave cant to gasp over it. 
6 



CHAPTER XII. 

Formation of the London Company for the Settlement of Virginia — Birth- 
place of Capt. John Smith, and early crosses — Enters the service of Aus- 
tria — Single combats in presence of both armies — Prisoner among the 
Tartars — Romantic adventures and escape — Joins the London Com- 
pany — Prisoner among the Indians — Saved from death by the youthful 
Pocahontas — Other achievements in America. 

Prior to tlie year 1607, a period of one hundred and fif- 
teen years from the discovery of San Salvador, by Columbus, 
attempts had been made to effect settlements in various parts 
of North America ; but no one proved successful until the 
settlement at Jamestown. 

In 1606, King James I, of England, gTanted letters patent, 
an exclusive right or privilege, to two companies, called the 
London and Plymouth Companies, by which they were au- 
thorized to possess the lands in America, lying between the 
34th and 45th degrees of north latitude ; the southern part 
called South Virginia, to the London, and the northern, called 
North Virginia, to the Plymouth Company. 

Under this patent the London Company sent Capt. Christo- 
pher Newport to Virginia, December 20, 1606, with a colony 
of one hundred and five persons to commence a settlement on 
the island Pwoanoke, novr in North Carolina. After a tedious 
voyage of four months, by the circuitous route of the West 
Indies, he entered Chesapeake Bay, having been driven north 
of the place of his destination. 

Here it was concluded to land ; and proceeding up a river, 
called by the Indians Powhattan, but by the colony, James 
river, on a beautiful peninsula, in May, 1607, they began the 
first permanent settlement in North America, and called it 
Jamestown. 
(66) 



*' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. Q7 

Tlie government of this colony was formed in England by 
the London Company. It consisted of a council of seven per- 
sons, appointed by the Company, with a president chosen by 
the council from their number, who had two votes. All mat- 
ters of moment were examined by this council, and determined 
by a majority. Capt. Newport brought over the names of this 
council,' carefully sealed in a box, which was opened after 
their arrival. 

Among the most enterprising and useful members of this 
colony, and one of its magistrates, was Captain John Smith. 
As he acted a distinguished part in the early history of the 
colony of Virginia, a brief sketch of his life will be 
interesting. 

He was born in Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, England, in 
1579. From his earliest youth, he discovered a roving and 
romantic genius, and appeared irresistibly bent on extrava- 
gant and daring enterprises. At the age of thirteen, becom- 
ing tired of study, he disposed of his satchel and books, with 
the intention of escaping to sea ; but the death of his father 
just at that time, frustrated his plans for the present, and 
threw him upon guardians, who, to repress the waywardness 
of his genius, conhned him to a counting-room. From a con- 
finement so irksome, however, he contrived to escape not long 
after, and with ten shillings in his pocket, entered the train 
of a young nobleman traveling to France. 

On their arrival at Orleans, he received a discliarge from 
further attendance upon Lord Bertie, who advanced him 
money to return to England. 

Smith had no wish, however, to return. With the money 
he had received he visited Paris, from which he proceeded to 
the low countries, where he enlisted into the service as a 
soldier. Having continued some time in this capacity, he was 
induced to accompany a gentleman to Scotland, who promised 
to recommend him to the notice of King James. Being dis- 
appointed, however, in this, he returned to England and vis- 
ited the place of his birth. Not finding the company there 
that suited his romantic turn, he erected a booth in some 
wood, and in the manner of a recluse, retired from society, 
devoting himself to the stud}^ of military history and tactics, 
divertino- himself at intervals with his horse and lance. 

Recovering, about this time, a part of his father's estate, 



(jS " Sam: '' ok, the History of Mystery. 

whidi had been in dispute, in 1596 lie again commenced his 
travels, being then only seventeen years of age. His first 
stage was Flanders, where, meeting with a Frenchman who 
pretended to be heir to a noble family, he was prevailed u^^on 
to accompany him to France. On their arrival at St. Valory, 
in Picardy, by the connivance of the shipmaster, the French- 
man and attendants robbed him of his effects, and succeeded 
in making their escape. 

Eager to pursue his travels, he endeavorod to procure a 
place on board a man-of-war. In one of his rambles, search- 
ing for a ship that would receive him, he accidentally met 
one of the villains concerned in robbing him. Without ex- 
changing a word, they both instantly drew their swords. 
The contest was severe, but Smith succeeded in wounding and 
disarming his antagonist, and obliged him to confess his guilt. 
After this rencounter, having received pecuniary assistance 
from an acquaintance, the Earl of Ployer, he traveled along 
the French coast to Bayonne, and then crossed to Marseilles, 
visiting and observing everything in his course which had 
reference to naval or military architecture. 

At Marseilles he embarked for Italy in company with a 
number of pilgrims. But here, also, new troubles awaited 
him. During the voyage, a tempest arising, the ship was 
forced into Toulon, after leaving which contrary winds so 
impeded their progress that, in a fit of rage, the pilgrims 
imputing their ill fortune to the presence of a heretic, threw 
him into the sea. 

Being a good swimmer, he was enabled to reach the island 
of St. Mary, off Nice, at no great distance, where he was 
taken on board a ship, in which, altering his course, he sailed 
to Alexandria in Egypt, and thence coasted the Levant. 
Having spent some time in this region, he sailed on his re- 
turn, and on leaving the ship, received about two thousand 
dollars, as his portion of a rich prize, which they had taken 
during the vovao-e. 

Smith landed at Antibes. He now traveled through Italy, 
crossed the Adriatic, and passed into Styria, to the seat of 
Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria. The Emperor being at 
that time at war with the Turks, he entered his army as a 
volunteer. 

By means of his valor and ingenuity, aided by his military 



•• Sam:'^ or the History of Mystery. GO 

kno^vledge and experience, he soon distinguislied himself, 
and was advanced to the command of a company, consisting 
of two hundred and fifty horsemen, in the regiment of Count 
Meklrick, a nobleman of Transylvania. 

The regiment in which he served was engaged in several 
hazardous enterprises, in which Smith exhibited a bravery 
admired by all the army, and when Meklrick left the Imperial 
service for that of his native prince, Smith followed, 
j At the siege of Regal he was destined to new adventures, 
jriie Ottomans deriding the slow advance of the Transylva- 
nia army, the Lord Turbisha dispatched a messenger with 
a challenge, that for the diversion of the ladies of the place, 
he would fight any captain of the Christian troops. 

The honor of accepting this challenge was determined by 
lot, and fell on Smith. At the time appointed, the two 
champions appeared in the field on horseback, and in the 
presence of the armies, and of the ladies of the insulting 
Ottoman, rushed impetuously to the attack. A. short but 
desperate conflict ensued, at the end of which Smith was seen 
bearing the head of the lifeless Turbisha in triumph to his 
o-eneral. 

The fall of the chief filled his friend Crualgo with indig- 
nation, and roused him to avenge his death. Smith accord- 
incrlv soon after received a challen2:e from him, which he did 
not hesitate to accept, and the two exasperated combatants, 
upon their chargers, fell with desperate fury upon each other. 
Victory again followed the falchion of Smith, who sent the 
Turk headlong to the ground. 

It was now the turn of Smith to make the advance. He 
dispatched a messenger therefore to the Turkish ladies, that 
if they were desirous of more diversion of a similar kind, they 
should be welcome to his head, in case their third champion 
could take it. 

Bonamalgro tendered his services, and haughtily accepted 
the Christian's challenge. When the day arrived the spec- 
tators assembled, and the combatants entered the field. It 
was an hour of deep anxiety to all; as the horsemen ap- 
proached a deathlike silence pervaded the multitude. A blow 
from the saber of the Turk brought Smith to the ground, and 
for a moment it seemed as if the deed of death was done. 
Smith, however, was only stunned. He rose like a lion, 



70 "Sam:" ok, the Histoky of Mysteky. 



when he shakos the dew from his mane for the fight, and 
vaulting into the saddle, made his falchion "shed fast atone- 
ment for its first delay." It is hardly necessary to add that 
the head of Bonamalgro was added to the number. 

Smith was received with transports of joy by the prince 
of Transylvania, who, after the capture of the place, pre- 
sented him with his picture set in gold, granted him a pen- 
sion of three hundred ducats a year, and conferred on him a 
coat of arms, bearing three Turks' heads in a shield. 

In a subsequent battle between the Transylvanian army 
and a body of Turks and Tartars, the former was defeated, 
with a loss of many killed and wounded. Among the 
wounded was the gallant Smith. His dress bespoke his con- 
sequence, and he was treated kindly. On his recovery from 
his v/ounds, he was sold to the Bashaw Bogul, who sent him 
as a present to his mistress at Constantinople, assuring her 
that he was a Bohemian nobleman whom he had conquered, 
and whom he now presented to her as her slave. 

The present proved more acceptable to the lady than her 
lord intended. As she understood Italian, in that language 
Smith informed her of his country and quality, and by his 
singular address and engaging manners, won the affection 
of her heart. 

Designing to secure him to herself, but fearing lest some 
misfortune should befall him, she sent him to her brother, a 
Bashaw, on the borders of the sea of Asoph, with a direction 
that he should be initiated into the manners and language, 
as well as the religion of the Tartars. From the terms of 
her letter, her brother suspected her design, and resolved to 
disappoint her. Immediately after Smith's arrival, there- 
fore, he ordered him to be stripped, his head and beard to be 
shaven, and with an iron collar about his neck, and a dress 
of hair-cloth, he was driven forth to labor among some 
Christian slaves. 

The circumstances of Smith were peculiarly afflicting. He 
could indulge no hope, except from the attachment of his 
mistress, but as her distance was great, it was improbable 
that she would soon become acquainted witb the story of his 
misfortunes. 

In the midst of his distress, an opportunity to escape pre- 
sented itself, but under circumstances, which, to a person of 



** Sam :'' or, the History op Mystery. 71 

a less adventurous spirit, would have served only to liighten 
his distress. His employment was thrashing, at the distance 
of a league from the residence of the Bashaw, who daily vis- 
ited him, but treated him with rigorous severity, and in a fit 
of anger, even abused him with blows. This last, was treat- 
ment to which the independent spirit of Smith could not 
submit. Watching a favorable opportunity, on an occasion of 
the tyrant's visit, and when his attendants were absent, he lev- 
eled his thrashing instrument at him and laid him in the dust. 

He then hastily filled a bag with grain, and mounted the 
Bashaw's horse, put himself upon fortune. Directing his 
course toward a desert, he entered its recesses, and continuing 
to conceal himself in its obscurities for several davs, at len2:th 
made his escape. In sixteen days he arrived at Exapolis, on 
the river Don, where meeting with the Russian garrison, the 
commander treated him kindly, and gave him letters of 
recommendation to other commanders in that region. 

He now traveled through a part of Eussia and Poland, and 
at length reached his friends in Transylvania. At Leipsic 
he enjoyed the pleasure of meeting his Colonel, Count Mel- 
drick, and Sigismund, Prince of Transylvania, who presented 
him with fifteen hundred ducats. His fortune being thus in 
a measure repaired, he traveled through Germany, France, 
and Spain, and having visited the kingdom of Morocco, re- 
turned once more to England. 

Such is a rapid view of the life of this interesting adven- 
turer, down to his arrival in his native land. At this time, 
the settlement of America was occupying the attention of 
many distinguished men in England. The life of Smith, 
united to his fondness for enterprises of danger and difiicul- 
ty, had prepared him to embark with zeal, in a project so 
novel and sublime as that of exploring the wilds of a newly 
discovered continent. 

He was soon attached to the expedition, about to sail under 
Newport, and was appointed one of the magistrates of the 
colony sent over at that time. Before the arrival of the 
colony, his colleagues in office becoming jealous of his influ- 
ence, arrested him on the absurd charge that he designed to 
murder the council, usurp the government, and make him- 
self king of Virginia. He was, therefore, rigorously confined 
during the remainder of the vovao^e. 



72 " Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 

On their arrival in the country he was liberated, but could 
not obtain a trial, although in the tone of conscious integrity, 
h.e repeatedly demanded it. The infant colony was soon in- 
volved in perplexity and danger. Notwithstanding Smith 
had been calumniated, and his honor deeply wounded, his 
was not the spirit to remain idle when his services were 
needed. Nobly disdaining revenge, he offered his assistance, 
and by his talents, experience, and indefatigable zeal, fur- 
nished important aid to the infant colony. 

Continuing to assert his innocence, and to demand a trial, 
the time at length arrived when his enemies could postpone 
it no longer. After a fair hearing of the case, he was hon- 
orably acquitted of the charges alleged against him, and soon 
after took his seat in the council. 

The affairs of the colony becoming more settled, the active 
spirit of Smith prompted him to explore the neighboring 
country. In an attempt to ascertain the source of Chicka- 
homing river, he ascended in a barge as far as the stream 
was uninterrupted. Designing to proceed still further, he 
left the barge in the keeping of the crew, witli strict injunc- 
tions on no account to leave her, and with two Englishmen 
and two Indians left the party. But no sooner was he out 
of view, than the crew, impatient of restraint, repaired on 
board the barge, and proceeding some distance down the 
stream, landed at a place where a body of Indians lay in am- 
bush, by whom they were seized. 

By means of the crew, the route of Smith was ascertained, 
and a party of Indians were immediately dispatched to take 
him. On coming up with him, they fired, killed the Eng- 
lishmen, and wounded himself. With great presence of mind, 
he now tied his Indian guide to his left arm, as a shield from 
the enemies' arrow, while with his musket he dispatched 
three of the most forward of the assailants. 

In this manner he continued to retreat toward his canoe, 
while the Indians, struck with admiration of his bravery, 
followed with respectful caution. Unfortunately, coming to 
a sunken spot filled with mire, while engrossed with eyeing 
his pursuers, he sunk so deep, as to be unable to extricate 
himself, and was forced to surrender. 

Fruitful in expedients to avert immediate death, he pre- 
sented an ivory compass to the chief, whose attention was 



'•Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 73 

arrested by the vibrations of the needle. Taking advantage 
of the impression which he had thus made, partly by signs, 
and partly by language, he excited their wonder still more 
by telling them of its singular powers. 

Their wonder, however, seemed soon to abate, and their 
attention returned to their prisoner. He was now bound 
and tied to a tree, and the savages were preparing to direct 
their arrows at his breast. At this instant the chief holding 
up the compass, they laid down their arms, and led him in 
triumph to Powhattan, their king. 

Powhattan and his council doomed him to death, as a man 
whose courage and genius were peculiarly dangerous to the 
Indians. Preparations were accordingly made, and when 
the time arrived, Smith was led out to execution. His head 
was laid upon a stone, and a club presented to Powhattan, 
who, himself claimed the honor of becoming the executioner. 
The savages in silence were circling round, and the giant 
arm of Powhattan had already raised the club to strike the 
fatal blow, when, to his astonishment, the young and beau- 
tiful Pocahontas, his daughter, with a shriek of terror, 
rushed from the throng, and threw herself upon the body 
of Smith. At the same time she cast an imploring look 
toward her furious but astonished father, and in all the 
eloquence of mute, but impassioned sorrow, besought his life. 

The remainder of the scene was honorable to Powhattan. 
The club of the chief was still uplifted, but a father's pity 
had touched his heart, and the eye that had first kindled 
with wrath, was now fast losing its fiercenesss. He looked 
round as if to collect his fortitude, or perhaps, to find an ex- 
cuse for his weakness, in the pity of the attendants. A 
similar sympathy had melted the savage throng, and seemed 
to join in the petition, which the weeping Pocahontas felt, 
but durst not utter: " My father ! let the prisoner live." 
Powhattan raised his daughter, and the captive, scarcely yet 
assured of safety, from the earth. 

Shortly after, Powhattan dismissed Captain Smith with 
assurances of friendship, and the next morning, accompanied 
with a guard of twelve men, he arrived safely at James- 
town, after a captivity of seven weeks.'"--' 



''Burk's Virginia. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Historical depreciation of Sam's Southern children — Abusive epithets cur- 
rent — Contrast "with the first Northern Settlements — Who, apparently, 
under the ban of Providence ? — ^AVho were the Discoverers and Explorers 
of the New World? 

So much for tlie peerless chevalier — the Father of Vir- 
ginia, and Explorer of the North/" — illustrious John Smith ! 
Nor is this all of his career. It had heen chiefly through 
his influence, that James I was induced to grant the " first 
colonial charter " under which the English were planted in 
America; although the great majority of Sam's children 
have never to this day, heard that there was any other place 
settled in " the beginning," but Plymouth, or any code of 
laws instituted than the precious " Body" of Rights, with its 
" Blue " Lights, or Laws, to which we have referred ; yet 
not only is it true, that to John Smith and Virginia we owe 
the "first colonial charter" in 1606, but to John Smith and 
Virginia do we owe, in June, 1619, the " first colonial assem- 
bly " that ever met in America, and which was convened at 
Jamestown. 

While John Carver, Cotton Mather, and the *' Saintly 
Winthrop," are names canonized throughout the land as the 
select forerunners of Freedom — so many " Baptists " pro- 
claiming in the wilderness the " good news" of the approach- 
ing regeneration of humanity — John Smith remains plain 
"John Smith," who was "saved by Pocahontas." 

"In 1614, Captain John Smith sailed from England, with two ships, to 
America. He ranged the coast from Penobscot to Cape Cod. On his return 
to England, he presented a map of the country to Prince Charles, who 
named it New England. Thus was the first survey of her own coast, and 
which resulted in giving her a name, made by the founder of these South- 
ern institutions now so villified by New England. 

(74) 



''Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 75 

Sam says fiddle-faddle ! the " brazen tongue " wagged by 
these clerkly fellows is tiresome ; they have kept up one 
eternal too-oo ! too-oo ! too-oot ! in defense of the saintly 
villains and villainies of their early times when nobody was 
attacking them. For who troubled themselves about it, 
since vices and cruelties were, as everybody knew, to be ex- 
pected in the settlement of all new countries ? But not 
content with taking their chances in the impartial recogni- 
tion of mankind, and confining themselves to the plain nar- 
rative of facts, they have exhibited a systematic effort to 
forestall what might be expected to become the natural sen- 
timent — a conscious, nervous special pleading in advance, has 
betrayed the apprehension of justifiable attack. The pur- 
pose to ''make a character" where they could lay claim to 
none. Demanding of the credulity of mankind for the Pu- 
ritan, the united attributes of apostle, saint, lawgiver, states- 
man, warrior, and psalmodist, they dismiss the renowned and 
noble founder of Virginia with the contemptuous implication 
of petty adventure — his illustrious name coupled with a silly 
story of rescue by a forlorn Indian maiden, (who was in fact, a 
little child) — as though this ''lovely Indian princess" were 
indeed the heroic actor in the only scene in his career worth 
recording, while the poor John Smith was merely a passive 
instrument. 

Nor is this all, saith Sam. While, although with preten- 
tious humility, they have very properly, never emulated the 
" gallant spirit " of the cavaliers, yet, as a saving clause for 
their self-righteousness, they have stigmatized them as " dis- 
solute gallants, packed off to escape worse destinies at home, 
broken tradesmen, gentlemen impoverished in sj)irit and for- 
tune, rakes and libertines ; men more fitted to corrupt than 
to found a commonwealth," •■-' winding up this delectable cata- 
logue with the pious exclamation : " Ii was not the will of 
God that the new State should be formed of these materials — 
that such men were to be the fathers of a progeny born on 
the American soil, who were one day to assert American 
liberty by their eloquence, and defend it by their valor."| 

Then as cumulative evidence that the hand of Providence 
had clearly interposed to prevent such prayerless " vaga- 

'-' Bancroft, page 138, 1st. vol. tidem, page 138. 



76 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

bonds" from becoming fathers of a State, they say in the 
next breath: "John Smith, being wounded and compelled to 
return to Europe, at his departure, he had left more than 
four hundred and ninety persons in the colony ; in six months, 
indolence, vice, and famine reduced the number to sixty, and 
these were so feeble and dejected, that if relief had been 
delayed but ten days longer, they must have utterly per- 
ished."* 

Away with such driveling cant, says Sam. If suffering 
from famine and other necessary and usually attendant dan- 
gers of settlement in a new country, be any evidence that 
God has willed that a set of "vagabonds" should not be per- 
mitted to perpetuate their spawn upon the face of a new 
country, destined to be the home of a free people, what be- 
comes of your own story of the sufie rings of the " Pilgrim 
Fathers?" "After some days they began to build— a diffi- 
cult task for men of whom one-half were wasting away with 
consumptions and lung fevers." f 

This only a few days after landing, too, quoth Sam; 
pretty recreations these ascetic self-denying Puritans must 
have indulged in on board that same immaculate May- 
Flower I Ask any of my physicians out of New England 
what habits are most likely to engender consumption, under 
such circumstances, thunders he in wrath, ask them too if 
men usually " waste away with consumptions and lung 
fevers " in three or four days ! — and you will be apt to find 
why it is that these fellows did not emulate the " gallant 
spirit " of the cavaliers. 

But this is not all, continues the inexorable Sam, whose 
pluck is up at hearing his southern children thus gratuitously 
made the sole plenary examples of the results of vice, in- 
dolence and crime. 

Was the hand of Providence in it for the extermination 
of the embryo of a race of hypocritical blue-law enactors, 
persecuting witch-burners and savage kidnappers, when "a 
shelter not less than comfort, had been wanting, the living 
being scarcely able to bury the dead, the well not sufficient 
to take care of the sick? At the season of distress, there 
were but seven able to render assistance. The benevolent 

'■Bancroft, page 140, vol. 1. fldem, page 313, vol. 1. 



'' Sam: ^' or, the History of Mystery. 77 

Carver liad been appointed Governor ; at his first landing 
he had lost a son ; soon after the departure of the May- 
Flower for England his health sunk under a sudden attack, 
and his wife, broken-hearted, followed him in death. 
William Bradford, the historian of the colony, was soon 
chosen his successor. The record of misery was kept by the 
graves of the governor and half his company." Was this 
the hand of Providence? But let us hear more. "But if 
sickness ceased to prevail, the hardships of privation and -want 
remained to be encountered. In the autumn an arrival of 
new emigrants, who came unprovided with food, compelled the 
whole colony, for six months in succession, to subsist on half 
allow^ance only.'' " I have seen men," says Winslow, " stag- 
ger by reason of faintness for want of food." They were 
once saved from famishing by the benevolence of fishermen 
off the coast. Sometimes they suffered from oppressive ex- 
action on the part of ships that sold them provisions at the 
most exorbitant prices. Nor did their miseries soon termi- 
nate. Even in the third year of the settlement the victuals 
were so entirely spent, that " they knew not at night where 
to have a bit in the morning." Tradition declares that, " at 
one time, the colonists were reduced to a pint of corn, which 
being parched and distributed, gave to each individual only 
five kernels ; but rumor falls short of reality ; for three or 
four months together they had no corn whatever. When a 
few of their old friends arrived to join them, a lobster or a 
piece of fish, without bread or anything else but a cup of fair 
spring water, was the best dish which the hospitality of the 
whole colony could offer. Neat cattle were not introduced 
till the fourth year of the settlement. Yet during all this 
season of self-denial and suffering, the cheerful confidence 
of the Pilgrims in the mercies of Providence remained un- 
shaken." 

Ho ! ho ! says Sam, with a laugh that makes the very 
codfish stand upon their tails in wonder. " The living scarce 
able to bury the dead ! the well not able to take care of the 
sick !" but seven were " able to render assistance." " Colonists 
reduced to five grains of corn apiece I" this seems a bad busi- 
ness ! What w^as the hand of Providence — of which they 
are so fond of speaking familiarly — doing with these saints 
about these times ? Not exterminating them as unfit to 



78 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

become tlie "progenitors of freemen !" oli, no ! " Chastening 
us ; but as for those blackguard cavaliers down yonder at 
Jamestown, he is exterminating them !" Hoo ! ho ! yet you 
were the nearest exterminated of the two ! But as " the 
cheerful confidence of the Pilo:rims in the mercies of Pro- 
vidence remained unshaken," we must take it for granted 
that the Providence of the Pilgrims and the Providence of 
the cavaliers were two different powers in the *' State " — In 
no event does this seem more apparent than in the fact that 
this doleful sixty, — the remnant of the doomed four hun- 
dred and ninety — even after having been joined by a 
destitute reinforcement, — which had been wrecked on the 
way to join them with supplies, thus rendering their despera- 
tion even more forlorn — having embarked with the mad hope 
of returning across the sea in ships built of cedar logs, with- 
out provisions, met at the mouth of the river the long boat 
of Lord Delaware, who had just arrived on the coast with 
new emigrants and abundant supplies. 

Now, if Providence be the benign and solemn source of a 
great and unexpected good to mankind for wise purposes, 
beyond its ken, which is the aspect of that majestic power, 
in which wise and good men love best to regard its mysterious 
doings, then does Sam look upon this as one of those events 
which might justly be styled providential ! That thus these 
**dissolute " and " vagabond" sons of Sam did so regard it, let 
this same narrator from whom we have been quoting show. 
In the intellectual zeal of natural justice, he sometimes 
manages to forget his cue of Puritan, and burst forth into 
an involuntary apotheosis of truth without regard to locality. 

It was on the tenth day of June that the restoration of 
the colony was solemnly begun by supplications to God. A 
deep sense of the infinite mercies of his providence overawed 
the colonists who had been spared by famine, the emigrants 
w^ho had been shipwrecked and yet preserved, and the new 
comers who found wTetchedness and want when they had ex- 
pected the contentment of abundance. The firmness of their 
resolution repelled despair. 

'' It is," said they, " the arm of the Lord of Hosts who 
would have his people pass the Ked Sea and the wilderness, 
and then possess the land of Canaan." Dangers avoided 
inspire trust in providence. *' Doubt not," said the emi- 



" Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 79 

grants to the people of England, " 'God will raise one State 
and build his church in this excellent clime.' After solemn 
exercises of religion, Lord Delaware caused his commission 
to be read ; a consultation was immediately held on the good 
of the colony, and its government was organized with mild- 
ness but decision. The evils of faction were healed by the 
unity of the administration and the dignity and virtues of 
the governor, and the colonists, excited by mutual emulation, 
performed their tasks with alacrity. At the beginning of 
the day they assembled in the little church, which was kept 
neatly trimmed with the wild flowers of the country ; next 
they returned to their houses to receive their allowance of 
food. The settled hours of labor were from six in the morn- 
ing till ten, and from two in the afternoon till four. The 
house was warm and secure, covered above with strong boards, 
and matted on the inside after the fashion of the Indian 
wigwams. Security and affluence were returning." 

Sam thinks that this can hardly be said to describe a 
doomed and God-forsaken crew of "profligate vagabonds," 
nor can he conceive from whence on the face of the story the 
" licentiousness " so grievously complained of can proceed, 
unless it be in the contrast which the " little church kept 
neatly trimmed with the wild flowers of the country " offered 
to the sulky smoke-dens in which the Pilgrims offered up 
their morose and vindictive oblations to the God of Light 
and Peace. 

" Security and affluence were returning," yet Sam insists 
that the unfortunate '' sixty " dedicated by Providence to 
annihilation were sti]l left to multiply and replenish beneath 
the protecting arm of the '' Lord of Hosts " whom they so 
devoutly adored for his mercies, and that, too, in spite of 
the " particular Providence " of their more unfortunate 
northern brothers. 

But, forsooth, what seems to have constituted the knights 
and gentlemen, the peers and followers of Columbus, the 
Cabots, Cortes, De Soto, Kaleigh, and John Smith — "dissolute 
va2:abonds " and "mere adventurers?" " Thev came to 
search for gold," snuffle my puritanical boobies ; says Sam, 
and what of it ? To what other instincts than the love of 
gold and glory do we owe the commerce and expanding 
civilization of the old world, as well as the discovery, con- 



80 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

quests, and civilization of tlie New ? America was then the 
California of Europe ; your disinterested sons have only 
crowded into California ^'for liberty to worship God" of 
course — or '' to found an empire," no doubt. 

When your fractious, meddlesome and noisy progenitors, 
were driven out of England for England's good, and could 
not stay even in fat, frouzy and most patient Holland, when 
the fatigued toleration of Europe would no longer permit you 
a spot whereon to rest the soles of your feet ; then, of course, 
as "America was the region of romance, where the heated 
imagination could indulge in the boldest delusions, where the 
simple natives wore the most precious ornaments, and by the 
side of the clear runs of water the sands sparkled with 
gold ;"'-•■' thither, your eyes, in common with those of all the 
world, were turned, and the spirit moved you to " found an 
empire " based upon " the right to worship God." 

Not by any manner of means that you were moved thereto 
by any lust for gold or base carnal desire whatever ! — al- 
though, at that time, gold was being sought with equal 
eagerness along the whole Atlantic border — from the voyagers 
in search of a northwest passage among the arctic ice and 
snow, who took home the holds of their vessels filled with 
what they thought to be golden earth — to the ungodly ad- 
venturers at Jamestown in the South ! 

But ''who would have expected to find gold on the bleak 
rocks of Plymouth ?" and beside, their historian says, " They 
knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on these 
things, but lifted up their eyes to heaven, their dearest 
country, and quieted their spirits."! 

Very well — it would seem then that they had indeed no 
other country to lift their eyes to, for the same historian 
says, " they had no homes to go to — so that at last the 
magistrates were glad to be rid of them on any terms." It 
would not do to call these people '-vagabonds," of course, 
because, v/ith a sanctimonious upturning of the eyes they 
had said "they looked not much on these things!" But as 
with an impious familiarity which has always characterized 
their modes of speech, they " found God going along with 
them," and turned their eyes upon North Virginia, applying 
to the Virginia Company for a patent. 

*" Bancroft, i Bradford. 



'' Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 81 

Now Virginia was understood to be tlie safest place around 
wliicli the aroma of hidden wealth in treasure clung, and 
thitJier they set out to go in the Speedwell and the Mayflower. 
They were driven off their course by storms, and landed at 
Plymouth "on compulsion!" 

But Sam would remind them that " the beauty and im- 
measurable wealth of Guiana had been painted in dazzling 
colors by the brilliant eloquence of Ealeigh ; but the terrors 
of the tropical climate, the wavering pretensions of England 
to the soil, and the proximity of bigoted Catholics led them 
rather to look toward the most northern parts of Virginia." "' 

We can very well comprehend now, quoth Sam, how, in 
their humility, they have never emulated the " gallant 
spirit" of the "vagabond" cavaliers! 

How many new worlds would have been discovered ? How 
many Perus and Mexicos conquered? How many Missis- 
sippis found and Virginias built up, had these stigmatized 
cavaliers been turned aside by the "terrors" of tropical 
climates, wavering pretensions of kings, or proximity of ad- 
verse creeds? 

*» Bancroft. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Prosperity of the Colony of Jamestown under the rule of Captain Smith — 
Sudden Treachery of the Indians and great Massacre of the Settlers. 

But enough of this. It would seem that under the tute- 
lary guardianship of Smith, the colonies were now prospering 
greatly. The first cotton grown in the United States had 
now been planted under his auspices (1621); and its "plen- 
tiful coming up^' had been a subject of interest in America 
and England. "Yes," says Sam, " these libertine vagabonds 
seem likely to prove themselves first in everything." 

The relations with the natives had been, as yet, compara- 
tively pleasant. There had been quarrels, but no wars. 
From the first landing of colonists in Virginia, the power of 
the natives was despised. Their strongest weapons were such 
arrows as they could shape without the use of iron — such 
hatchets as could be made from stone, and an English mas- 
tiff seemed to them a terrible adversary. 

Within sixty miles of Jamesto^vn, it is computed, there 
were no more than five thousand souls, or about fifteen hundred 
warriors. The natives, naked and feeble compared with the 
Europeans, were nowhere concentrated in considerable vil- 
lages, but dwelt dispersed in hamlets, with from forty to sixty 
in each company. Few places had more than two hundred, 
and many had less. It was also unusual for any large por- 
tion of the tribes to assemble together. 

Smith once met a party that seemed to amount to seven 
hundred, and so complete was the superiority conferred by 
the use of fire-amis, that with fifteen men he was able to 
withstand them all. No uniform care had been taken to con- 
ciliate their good-will, although their condition had been 
improved by some of the arts of civilized life. A house 
,^82) 



" Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 83 

having been built for Opeebancanough, after tbe English 
fashion, he took such delight in the lock and key that he 
would lock and unlock the door a hundred times a day, and 
thought the device incomj^arable. 

When Wyatt arrived, the natives expressed fear lest his 
intentions should be liostile. He assured them of his wish to 
preserve inviolable peace, and the emigrants had no use for 
fire-arms except against a deer or fowl. The penalty of death 
for teaching an Indian to use a musket was forgotten ; and 
they were now employed as fowlers and huntsmen. The 
plantations of the English were widely extended in unsus- 
pecting confidence wherever rich land invited to the culture 
of tobacco ; nor were solitary places avoided, since there would 
be less competition for the ownership of the soil. 

Powhattan, the father of Pocahontas, remained, after the 
marriage of his daughter, the firm friend of the English. 
He died in 1618, and his younger brother was now the sole 
heir to his influence. Should the native occupants of the soil 
consent to be driven from their ancient patrimony ? Should 
their feebleness submit to contempt, injury, and the loss of 
their lands? The desire of self-preservation, the necessity 
of self-defense seemed to demand an active resistance. To 
preserve their dwellings, the English must be exterminated. 
In open battle the Indians would be powerless. 

Conscious of their weakness, they could not hope to accom- 
plish their end, except by a preconcerted suqorise. The crime 
was one of savage ferocity. They were timorous and quick 
of apprehension, and consequently treacherous. The attack 
was concocted with impenetrable secrecy. To the very last 
hour the Indians preserved the language of friendship ; they 
borrowed the boats of the English to attend their own as- 
semblies ; on the very morning of the massacre they were 
in the houses and at the tables of those whose death they 
were plotting. " Sooner," said they, "shall the sky fall than 
peace be violated on our part." 

At length, on the 22cl of March, at one and at the same 
instant of time, the Indians fell upon an unsuspecting popu- 
lation, which was scattered through distant villao-es extending* 
one hundred and forty miles on both sides of the river. The 
onset was so sudden that the blow was not discerned until it 
fell. None were spared — children and women as well as 



84 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

men ; missionaries, wlio had cherished the natives with un- 
tiring gentleness ; the liberal benefactors from whom they 
had received daily kindnesses ; all were murdered with indis- 
criminate barbarity and every aggravation of cruelty. The 
savages fell upon the dead bodies, as if it had been possible 
to commit on them fresh murder. 

In one hour three hundred and forty-seven persons were 
cut off, yet the carnage was not universal, and Virginia was 
saved from so disastrous a grave. The night before the 
execution of the conspiracy, it was revealed by a converted 
Indian to an Englishman whom he wished to rescue. James- 
town and the nearest settlements were well prepared against 
an attack, and the savages, as timid as they were ferocious, 
fled with precipitation from the apparent wakeful resistance. 
Thus the larger part of the colony was saved. 

A year after the massacre, there still remained two thou- 
sand five hundred men. The total number of the emigrants 
had exceeded four thousand.'" 

Thus it seems that these " dissolute adventurers" had, up 
to this time, cultivated the most amicable relations with their 
savage neighbors, and that it was not until this horrible 
massacre of the trusting colonists, that '* plans of industry 
were entirely succeeded by schemes of revenge," and a war 
of extermination ensued. These conditions, Sam thinks, as 
something unlike those which preceded the ruthless slaughter 
of the miserable and defenseless Pequods by his sanctimoni- 
ous sons! Nor does Sam hear anything of "Eum" as a 
contracting party in the peace which was made with Pow- 
hattan. 

** This account we epitomize from Bancroft. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Origin of "First Families" in Virginia — Auction of wives to the Vir- 
ginians — Sam's idea of Aristocracy — Virginians obtain the right of trial 
by Jury — of Representative Government also — Religious toleration first 
granted them, repealed. 

But Sam turns now suddenly toward the Soutli, and a hu- 
morous twinkle hroadens on his wide countenance, as he re- 
gards for a moment the lordly airs of " some of our First 
Families " — then planting his huge finger upon the page of 
History which follows — he hursts into a great guffaw. 

" ' The people of Virginia had not heen settled in their 
minds/ and, as before the recent changes, they had gone 
there with the design of ultimately returning to England, it 
was necessary to multiply attachments to the soil. Few 
women had as yet dared to cross the Atlantic ; hut now, the 
promise of prosperity, induced ninety agreeable persons, 
young and incorrupt, to listen to the wishes of the company, 
and the benevolent advice of Sandys, and to embark for the 
colony, where they were assured of a welcome. They were 
transported at the expense of the corporation, and were mar- 
ried to the tenants of the company, or to men who were able 
to support them, and who willingly defrayed the cost of their 
passage, which was rigorously demanded. The adventure, 
which had been in part a mercantile speculation, succeeded 
so well, that it was designed to send, the next year, another 
consignment of one hundred ; but before these could be col- 
lected, the company found itself so poor, that its design could 
be accomplished only by a subscription. After some delays, 
sixty were actually dispatched — maids of virtuous education, 
young, handsome, and well recommended. The price rose 
from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty pounds 

(85) 



86 *'Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

of tobacco, or even more ; so that all tlie original charges 
might be repaid. The debt for a wife was a debt of honor, 
and took precedence of any other; and the company in con- 
ferring employments, gave preference to the married men. 
Domestic ties were formed; virtuous sentiments and habits 
of thrift ensued; the tide of emigration swelled; within 
three years, fifty patents for land were granted, and three 
thousand, five hundred persons found their way to Virginia, 
which was a refuge even for ' Puritans.' " 

" Hoo, hoo, hoo!" — "first families" indeed! when your 
great, great grandmothers, were bought off of transport ships 
for a hundred and twenty to a hundred and fifty pounds of 
tobacco each. " Here is the aristocratic for you !" he shouts 
hoarsely, clutching with outstretched arm the tufted crest 
of an Alleghany summit, which he rocks and heaves as if to 
tear it by its roots from out his path, and thereby shaking 
the chain along its whole length into a shiver. " The power 
and will to do — to move — to overcome — this is my aris- 
tocracy." 

The indignation of Sam was only transient, for as he saw 
the startled mountains cradled back to sleep again in short- 
ened vibrations, he smiled complacently, and said, with a 
slow speech and humorous tAvinkle : " Why, that youngster 
of mine, California, will, at this rate, soon be pluming him- 
self upon a special aristocratic caste, sprung from the loins 
of those innocent maidens captivated and bewitched into his 
embraces by that enterprising admirer of the multiplication 
and replenishing of the earth system — Mrs. Farnham I " But 
then, he adds thoughtfully, with his foot in a notch, and leaning 
his elbow upon the now quiet summit of the mountains — as 
he looks out on the West — " this young fellow is rather 
knowing of his age ; he was born with a pickaxe in his hand; 
and understands that honor is alone to be won by labor — 
he '11 do." 

But the mood of Sam has suddenly changed ; and so ye 
slavish " Howlers of the East," it has never got into your 
" round heads," that after the formal concession of " legisla- 
tive liberties," the next charter of rights obtained for the 
" liberty of which ye cant so much, was that of the right of 
trial by jury of peers" in this profligate and ungodly 
colony of Virginia ! and furthermore, that this right was 



*'Sam:" or the History of Mystery. 87 

obtained in defiance of the interference of King James, by the 
London Company, who elected as Treasurer, the Earl of 
Southampton, the early friend of Shakspeare ! 

Under this organization, the Treasurer was in reality the 
most important officer. Indeed nothing could move without 
his co-operation, and '^ it is natural,'^ says Sam, *' that the early 
friend of Shakespeare — who was so far before the old world 
in reach of freedom of thought — should have been the earli- 
est promoter of the right of trial by jury in the New World." 

Sam disdains to call himself the " child of Shakespeare," or 
anybody else, because he is alone the child of the elements, 
and his children the sons of Sam ; yet it rather pleases the 
stalwart gentleman that his children down South obtained the 
"right of trial by jury" first through an early friend of 
Shakespeare, and perpetuated it, together with the novelty 
of *'leo:islative liberties" to all the other colonies. 

The system of representative government and trial by jury 
was thus (1621) established in the new hemisphere as an 
acknowledged right. The colonists ceasing to depend as 
servants on a commercial company, now became enfranchised 
citizens. Henceforward the supreme power was held to re- 
side in the hands of the colonial parliament and of the King, 
as King of Virginia. The ordinance was the basis on which 
Virginia erected the superstructure of its liberties. Its in- 
fluences were wide and enduring, and can be traced through 
all following years of the history of the colony. It consti- 
tuted the plantation in its infancy a nursery of freemen, and 
succeeding generations learned to cherish institutions which 
were as old as the first period of the prosperity of their 
fathers. 

The privileges which were now conceded could never be 
wrested from the Virginians ; and as new colonies arose at 
the South, their proprietaries could hope to win emigrants only 
by bestowing franchises as large as those enjoyed by their 
elder rival. The London company merits the fame of having 
acted as the successful friend of liberty in America. It may 
be doubted whether any public act during the reign of King 
James was of more permanent or pervading influence ; and 
it reflects glory on the Earl of Southampton, Sir Edwin 
Sandys, and the patriot party of England, who, unable to 



88 '' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

establish guarantees of a liberal administration at home, were 
careful to connect popular freedom so intimately with the life, 
prosperity and state of society of Virginia, that they never 
could be separated. 

Thus it would appear, says Sam, that my dissolute vaga- 
bonds of Virginia managed to thrive in one way and another 
amazingly. Not only did they contrive to obtain first from 
the Crown those concessions which constitute in themselves 
the magna charta of American freedom, and were afterward 
emulated and imitated in the constitutions of other colonies, 
but they likewise set the noble example of religious tolera- 
tion, and while their bigoted and canting brothers of Ply- 
mouth were banishing a Roger Williams and the Anabap- 
tists, hanging the inoffensive Quakers, burning, pressing, and 
drawing and quartering miserable old women, under the 
name of witches ; these profligate colonists, although firm 
believers in the union of church and state, were inviting these 
very Puritans to come among them and settle in peace. 

The condition of contending parties in England had now 
given to Virginia an opportunity of legislation independent 
of European control ; and the voluntary act of the assembly 
restraining religious liberty, adopted from hostility to polit- 
ical innovation, rather than a spirit of fanaticism, or respect 
to instructions, proves conclusively the attachment of the 
representatives of Virginia to the Episcopal church and the 
cause of royalty. Yet there had been Puritans in the colony 
almost from the beginning ; even the Brownists were freely 
ofiered a serene asylum. '* Here,'' said the tolerant Whita- 
ker, '' neither surplice nor subscription is spoken of," and sev- 
eral Puritan clergy emigrated to Virginia. They were so 
contented with their reception, that large numbers were pre- 
paring to follow, and were restrained only by the forethought 
of English intolerance. We have seen that the Pilgrims at 
Plymouth were invited to remove within the jurisdiction of 
Virginia ; Puritan merchants planted themselves at James 
river without fear, and emigrants from Massachusetts had 
recently established themselves in the colony. The honor of 
Land had been vindicated by a judicial sentence, and south 
of the Potomac the decrees of the court of high commission 
were allowed to be valid, but I find no traces of persecution 
in the earliest history of Virginia. 




^i'S^ 


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" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 89 

This is the self same historian who calls the early settlers 
of Virginia by such terrible hard names and denounces them 
as under the ban of Providence, because of their un worthi- 
ness to become the perpetuators of a race of freemen. 
*' Strange,^' says Sam, " that a people accursed of God should 
have been the very originators of the fundamental ideas of 
freedom." 

Although this gracious invitation had, by a special mission 
sent to Boston for the purpose, been extended in form to the 
ministers of Puritanism to come and settle in Virginia, yet 
the breaking out of the democratic revolution in England 
alarmed the loyalty of the colonists, who now dreaded the 
well-known meddlesome, prying, mischief-making proclivities 
of the malignant Calvinists which had procured their extir- 
pation from the old world, and the invitation was withdrawn 
and such non-conformists with Episcopacy were very properly 
banished from the colony. 

Sam says they did perfectly right in this, for from all the 
facts of their old world career, the Virginians had the very 
best reasons for expecting nothing but incendiary agitation 
at such a crisis, and were justly indisposed to warm a viper 
in their own bosoms. 

The historians of Puritanism are compelled to speak of 
this justifiable act of self-defense only in such modified terms 
as the following: ''Virginia thus displayed, though with 
comparatively little bitterness, the intolerance which for cen- 
turies had almost universally prevailed throughout the 
Christian world." 

8 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Repeal of Charter of London Company — The Bacon Rebellion — Death of 
Bacon and character of same. 

But the great event of Virginia history was the repeal of 
the Charter of the London Company about this period, (June, 
1624,) and the colony now became dependent upon herself- — 
her own legislative assembly and the king directly. They 
purchased a confirmation of all those franchises which the 
liberal prepossessions of the London Company had gradually 
conceded by the struggle for the surrender of the monopoly 
of tobacco to the spendthrift monarch Charles I. " The first 
recognition on the part of a Stuart of a representative assem- 
bly in America '' was of that called by Charles to consider his 
offer of a contract for the whole crop of tobacco. 

The erring monarch, to obtain the monopoly, carelessly 
overlooked the dangers of this elective legislature. Fortu- 
nate recklessness ! though the firmness of the Virginia Assem- 
bly defeated him. 

Yet this auspicious event has its drawbacks, which proved 
suflficiently formidable, beyond a doubt. This first attach- 
ment of the crown was rapidly followed by other interferences 
with, and encroachments upon, the liberty of trade, until at 
last, in 1641, *' England claimed that monopoly of colonial 
commerce which was ultimately enforced by the navigation 
act of Charles 11." 

Charles I, although he had pertinaciously expressed his 
" will and pleasure to have the sole pre-emption of all tobacco," 
had as yet failed of accomplishing his object. He, however, 
by a cunning indirection, finally succeeded in achieving what 
amounted to the same end. 
»90i 



" Sam : " OR, THE History of 3Iystery. 91 

No vessel laden with colonial commodities might sail from 
the harbors of Virginia for any ports bnt those of England, 
that the staple of those commodities might be made in the 
mother country ; and all trade vvith foreign vessels, except 
in case of necessity, was forbidden. This ordinance, which 
constituted the original of the oppressive '' Navigation Act,'* 
was the cause of infinite and grievous troubles to the Vir- 
ginia colony. 

In 1676, while the Indian war was still going on, com- 
plaints were made in England against the colonies for violat- 
ing the acts of trade. These acts imposed oppressive customs 
upon certain commodities, if imported from any country 
beside England, or if transported from one colony to another. 
The acts were considered by the colonies as unjust, impolitic 
and cruel. For several years they paid little attention to 
them, and his majesty at length required that agents should 
be sent to England to answer in behalf of the colonies for 
these violations. 

By the acts of trade none of the colonies suffered more 
than Virginia and Maryland, their operation being greatly 
to lessen the profits on their tobacco trade, from which a great 
portion of their wealth was derived. In addition to these 
sufierings, the colony of Virginia, in violation of chartered 
rights, was divided and conveyed away in proprietary grants. 
Not only uncultivated woodlands were thus conveyed, but also 
plantations which had long been possessed, and improved 
according to law and charter. 

The Virginians complained, petitioned, remonstrated, but 
without effect. Agents were sent to England to lay their 
grievances at the foot of the throne, but were unsuccessful. 
At length their oppression became insupportable, and the 
discontent of the people broke out into open insurrection. 

At the head of this insurrection was placed one Nathaniel 
Bacon, an Englishman, who, soon after his arrival had been 
appointed a member of the council. He was a young man 
of commanding person, and great energy and enterprise. 

The colony at this time was engaged in war with the Sus- 
quehanna Indians. Bacon dispatched a messenger to Gov- 
ernor Berkley, requesting a commission to go against the 
Indians. This commission the governor refused, and, at the 
same time, ordered Bacon to dismiss his men. and on penalty 



92 '• Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery 

of being declared a rebel, to appear before himself and the 
council. Exasperated by such treatment. Bacon, without dis- 
banding the rest of his men, proceeded in a sloop with forty 
of them, to Jamestown. Here a quarrel ensued, and Berk- 
ley illegally suspended him from the council. Bacon departed 
in a rage with his sloop and men, but the governor pursued 
him, and adopted such measures that he was taken, and 
brought to Jamestown. 

Finding that he had dismissed Bacon from the council 
illegally, he now admitted him again, and treated him kindly. 
Soon after, Bacon renewed his importunity for a commission 
against the Indians. Being unable to effect his purpose, he 
left Jamestown privately, but soon again appeared with six 
hundred volunteers, and demanded of the assembly then sit- 
ting, the required commission. Being overawed, the assem- 
bly advised the governor to grant it. But soon after Bacon 
had departed, the governor, by the same advice, issued a 
proclamation, denouncing him as a rebel. 

Hearing what the governor had done. Bacon, instead of 
marching against the Indians, returned to Jamestown, wreak- 
ing his vengeance upon all who opposed him. Governor 
Berkley fled across the bay to Accomac, but the spirit of 
rebellion had gone before him. He therefore found himself 
unable to resist Bacon, who now ranged the countr}'- at 
pleasure. 

At length, the governor, with a small force under com- 
mand of major Kobert Beverly, crossed the bay to oppose the 
malcontents. Civil war had now commenced. Jamestown 
was burnt by Bacon's followers ; various parts of the colony 
were pillaged, and the wives of those that adhered to the 
governor's party were carried to the camp of the insurgents. 

In the midst of these commotions, it pleased the Supreme 
Kuler to withdraw Bacon by a natural death. The malcon- 
tents, thus left to recover their reason, now began to disperse. 
Two of Bacon's generals surrendered and were pardoned, and 
the people quietly returned to their homes. 

Upon this Berkley resumed the government, and peace 
was restored. This rebellion formed an era of some note in 
the history of Virginia, and its unhappy effects were felt for 
thirty years. During its continuance, husbandry was almost 
wholly neglected, and such havoc was made among all kinds 



'*Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 93 

of cattle that the people were threatened with distressing 
famine. Sir William Berkley, after having been forty years 
governor of Virginia, returned to England, where he soon 
after died. 

Three years afterward, 1679, lord Culpepper was sent over 
as governor, with certain laws prepared in conformity to the 
wishes of the ministry of England, and designed to be enacted 
by the assembly in Virginia. One of those laws provided for 
raising a revenue for the support of the government. It 
made the duties perpetual, and placed them under the direc- 
tion of his majesty. 

On presenting these laws to the Assembly, Culpepper in- 
formed them that in case they were passed, he had instructions 
to offer pardon to all who had been concerned in Bacon's re- 
bellion, but if not, he had commissions to try and hang them 
as rebels, and a regiment of soldiers on the spot to support 
him. The Assembly, thus threatened, passed the laws. 

Berkley resumed the government indeed, but it seems to 
have been a bloody peace which he restored. After the death 
of Bacon, the mortified vanity of the irascible old cavalier raged 
against his broken and disbanded followers and abettors, until 
twenty-two had been hanged. It will be recollected, however, 
that he was a royalist governor, appointed by the king, and that 
his victims were the first martyrs to freedom on the American 
soil. Even the king disapproved of his ferocity. "The old 
fool," said the kind-hearted Charles II, " has taken away more 
lives in that naked country, than I for the murder of my father." 

'• He would have hanged half the country had we let him 
alone," said the colonial member from Northampton to his 
colleague from Stafford. 

The Nathaniel Bacon who headed this unfortunate (in one 
sense only — that he died so early,) rebellion, appears to have 
been from the first distrusted by Berkley. A native of Eng- 
land, born during the contests between parliament and the 
king, his active mind had been awakened to a consciousness 
of popular rights and popular power, he had not, therefore, 
yielded the love of freedom to the enthusiasm of royalty. 
*' Possessed of a pleasant address and powerful elocution," he 
had rapidly risen to distinction in Virginia. Quick of appre- 
hension, brave, choleric, yet discreet in action, the young and 
wealthy planter carried to the banks of James river, the 



94 " Sam : ^' or, the History of Mystery. 

liberal principles which he had gathered from '• English 
experience;" no wonder, then, that groaning nnder the 
grievous imposition of the "navigation acts," under the 
arbitrary distribution of their lands — many of which were 
old, settled and improved plantations — given away without 
any regard to the rights of the settlers, by the careless prod- 
igality of Charles II, to such men as Lord Culpepper, one of 
the most covetous in England, and Henry, Earl of Arling- 
ton, the dissolute, but accomplished father-in-law to the king^s 
son by lady Castlemain, who, in a word, became jointly, fac- 
tors of the King as joint owners of Virginia — together with 
the immediate pressure of a fierce war with the Susquehan- 
nas and Seneca Indians, retaliations for which the royalist, 
Governor Berkley, refused to sanction with his commission to 
Bacon; no wonder then, we say, that the people were " much 
infected " with the principles of this gallant planter, and of 
the Speaker of their assembly, Thomas Godwin, "notoriously 
a friend to all the rebellion and treason which distracted Vir- 
ginia ;" no wonder, too, that the gallant Bacon was hailed as 
the "darling of their hopes, the appointed defender of Vir- 
ginia," when, having been elected by the Assembly, com- 
mander-in-chief, he took charge of the " grand rebellion in 
Virginia !" 

The rebels under his command, both in the field and as a 
leading burgess in the Assembly, having compelled the un- 
willing Berkley to concede many important demands for 
amelioration, and this grateful feature of the legislation of 
the Assembly having been ratified, " that better legislation " 
was completed, according to the new style of computation, on 
the fourth day of July, 1676, just one hundred years to a 
day, before the Congress of the United States adopting the 
declaration which had been framed by a statesman of Virginia, 
who, like Bacon, was " popularly inclined," began a new era 
in the history of man. The eighteenth century in Virginia 
was the child of the seventeenth ; and Bacon's rebellion, with 
the corresponding scenes in Maryland, Carolina, and New 
England, was the early harbinger of American independence 
and American nationality. 

" Pretty good," says Sam, " for my Southern vagabonds ! " 



PART II 



CHAPTER XVII . 

A new mystery — The rise of Luther and Protestant wars — Advent of the 

mystery of Jesuitism. 

Though Sam was in himself a mystery of the New World, 
yet was he not the only clouded Force to which these por- 
tentous times gave hirth, and which was to hecome alike his 
foe and the terror of the old world as well as the New. 

A mysterious Force ! yes, a terrible mystery ! — the mys- 
tery of spiritual annihilation! — the mystery of ''walking 
corpses ^'^ of humanity demonized to the greater glory of 
God! 

Momentous years were those (1537 and 1620) which 
gave birth to the order of Jesuits and to Sam. Memorable 
forever will they be in the record of human struggle. 
Strange that out of the mighty travail of the Protestant 
Eevolution of the sixteenth century in Europe should have 
sprung these two births, the one so eventful to the death, the 
other to the life of hope for humanity ! that to the smiting 
of the powerful wands of Luther and Calvin, upon the 
shadowy turmoil these giant foes stepped forth, the one be- 
neath the sun of day, the other beneath the umbrage of 
deep night. 

But as we have looked upon the birth of Sam, seen some- 
thing of the stormy contrasts and opposing traits which con- 
stituted the majestic elements of the formative period of his 
career ; have, in a word, regarded his prodigious infancy at 

• Perinde ac cadaver — The last words of the fotinder of the order of Jesmts. 

(95) 



96 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

the North and at the South, in the early Puritan and Cav- 
alier, we may now turn our eyes on the same period in the 
coming of his arch and most deadly enemy. 

The sixteenth century was, indeed, a period of ferment in 
the world's history ! Absolutism had attained the climax 
of prerogative throughout the christian world. Europe was 
divided between three masters, Henry VHI, of England, 
Francis I, of France, and Charles V, of Spain, who held it 
in as many fields, and were fighting a triangular battle for 
the possession of the whole, with the aid of mercenary 
armies ; for the feudal system, trampled in the dust, was no 
longer rampant to the setting up and pulling down of kings. 

The gold of the newly-discovered Western World of Sam 
had now become a puissant arbitrator in these kingly 
quarrels, and soon the old time chimera of the "balance of 
power" seemed likely to come home to roost beneath the 
roof-tree of Charles V, of Spain. 

Henry VIH, who, between the divorcing and beheading 
his wives, plundering the monasteries and keeping in check 
beneath his heel the dying throes of the "king-making" 
turbulence — the "Warwick" blood of his nobility — found suf- 
ficient employment at home, after the issue of the electoral 
Congress of Frankfort, to retire upon from this contest and 
leave France and Spain to fight it out. Their wars con- 
tinued to redden the fields of Europe with but little avail. 

Meanwhile, as a compensation for these evils, the human 
mind, casting off" the prejudices and ignoranoe of the middle 
ages, marches to regeneration. Italy becomes for the second 
time the center from whence the light of genius and learn- 
ing shines forth over Europe. Leonardo da Vinci, Tiziano, 
Michael Angelo, are the sublime, the most divine interpreters 
of art. Pulci, Ariosto Poliziano, give a new and creative 
impulse to literature, and are the worthy descendants of 
Dante. Scholasticism, with its subtle argumentations, vague 
reasonings, and illogical deductions, is superseded by the 
practical philosophy of Lorenzo and Machiavelli, and by the 
irresistible and eloquent logic of the virtuous but unfortunate 
Savonarola. Men who, for the last three centuries, had been 
satisfied with what had been taught and said by x\ristotle 
and his followers — who, as the last and incontrovertible 
argument, had been accustomed to exclaim, ipse dixit now 




4in««wr 



IGNATIUS J.OYOLA FOUNDER OF THE OEDER OF JESUITS — HIS MOTTO TO THE 
WORT.n, BEIKG " AD MAJOBEM DEI GLORIAM ;'' WHICH IS TO SAY — TO . - 
THE r.REATER GLOKV OF GOD ; WHILE HIS SPIRITUAL ADVISEH 
WHISPERS — TO THE GREATER GLORY OF LOYOLA 
AND I. (part II, CHAP. XVlI.) 



''Sam:" ok, the History of Mystery. 97 

begin to think for themselves, and dare to doubt and discuss 
what had hitherto been considered sacred and unassailable 
truths. The newly-awakened human intellect eagerly enters 
upon the new path, and becomes argumentative and inquir- 
ing, to the great dismay of those who deprecated diversity 
of faith ; and the Court of Eome, depending on the blind 
obedience of the credulous, anathematizing every disputer of 
the Papal infallibility, views with especial concern this 
rising spirit of inquiry, and has to tremble for its usurped 
power. 

Luther, the dogged monk, with the yearnings of an en- 
slaved and trampled world, writhing like vexed serpents in 
his brawny breast, having been treated with contumely in 
his first humble appeal to his spiritual father, the Pope, for 
the solution of the conscientious doubts which had overtaken 
him in his too earnest study of the " Holy Book," threw 
himself suddenly upon his ovm obdurate and self-reliant will, 
and hurling his defiance back against his late master, in 
answer to the Bull of Excommunication with which he had 
been favored, stood cap-a-pie, in the breach which he had 
already made, to battle to the death for his doctrines. 

The art of printing came opportunely to his aid, and 
wielding its magic, marvelous to tell, this burly champion 
proved meet to encounter, visor up and single hand, the ser- 
ried chivalry of Europe and the wrong. 

The German princes, partly persuaded of the truth of 
Luthers' doctrines, partly desirous to escape the exacting 
tyranny of Eome which drained their subjects' pockets, sup- 
ported the Eeformer. They protested at Spires, and at 
Smalkaden made preparations to maintain their protest by 
arms. In a few years, without armed violence, but simply 
by the persuasive force of truth, the greater part of Germany 
became converted to the Eeformed faith. The honest in- 
dignation of Zuinglius in Switzerland, and, conspiring with 
the difi'usion of the truth, the unbridled passions of Henry 
VIII in England, alike rescued a considerable portion of their 
respective countries from the Eomish yoke. In France and 
in Navarre the new doctrines found many warm adherents ; 
while in Italy itself, at Brescia, Pisa, Florence, nay even at 
Eome and at Faenza, there were many who more or less 
openly embraced the principlof^ of the Eeformation. Thus. 
9 



98 " Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

in a sliort time, tlie Eoman religion, founded in ancient 
and deep-rooted prejudices, supported by the two greatest 
powers in tlie world, the Pope and the Emperor, defended by 
all the bishops and priests who lived luxuriously by it, was 
overturned throughout a great part of Europe. 

Now was the time, when gloom had settled upon the cupola 
of St. Peter's, when the thunders of the Vatican were tamed, 
and the debauched and hoary despotism of Eome tottered on 
a throne of straw — now was the time which was to add terror 
to terror, crime to crime, which, in a new birth of darkness, 
was to people earth with incarnate ghosts more drear and 
powerful of evil than the creatures of a supernal hell. 

The period had come when, in the dulcet language of the 
Eathers of the Church, it was declared " that, as from time 
to time new heresies have inflicted the Church of God, so 
He has raised up holy men to combat them ; and as he had 
raised up St. Dominic against the Albigenses and Vaudois, 
so He sent Loyola and his disciples against the Lutherans 
and Calvinists."* 

It is of this new mystery, according to such authority, 
"raised up by God," to resist those elements out of which 
the birth of Sam came, that we would now proceed to nar- 
rate. 

*"' Helyot, Histoire des Ordres Monastiques, Religieux et Militaires, tome 
vii, p. 452. When we have modern authors we quote from Sacchinus Or- 
landinus, etc., we shall quote them, as books are easily to be had. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

Life of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Order — Spiritual exercises — The 
Weeks — The Contemplations — Loyola a Pilgrim to the Holy Places — His 
persecutions — His first disciples, Xavier, Le Fevre — Lainez and Rodri- 
gues vow to go to the Holy Land and convert Infidels — Vow of perpetual 
chastity and poverty — The vow of unquestioning obedience — Refusal of 
the Holy See to recognize the Order — Cunning vow of obedience to the 
Pope — Obtains his recognition — Bull of recognition. 

Inigo, or, as commonly called, Ignatius Loyola, the young- 
est of eleven children, of a noble and ancient family, was 
born in the year 1491, in his father's castle of Loyola at 
Guipuscoa in Spain. He was of middle stature and rather 
dark complexion; had deep-set, piercing eyes, and a hand- 
some and noble countenance. While yet young he had be- 
come bald, which gave him an expression of dignity, that 
was not impaired by a lameness arising from a severe wound. 
His father, a worldly man, as his biographer says, instead of 
sending him to some holy community to be instructed in 
religion and piety, placed him as a page at the court of Fer- 
dinand V. But Ignatius, naturally of a bold and aspiring 
disposition, soon found that no glory was to be reaped in the 
antechambers of tlie Catholic King ; and delighting in mili- 
tary exercises, he became a soldier — and a brave one he 
proved. His historians, to make his subsequent conversion 
appear more Avonderful and miraculous, have represented him 
as a perfect monster of iniquity ; but, in truth, he was merely 
a gay soldier, fond of pleasure, no doubt, yet not more de- 
bauched than the generality of his brother officers. His 
profligacy, whatever it was, did not prevent him from being 
a man of strict honor, never backward in time of danger. 

At the defense of Pampeluna against the French, in 1521, 
Ignatius, while bravely performing his duty on the walls, 
was struck down by a ball, which disabled botli his legs. 

(99) 



100 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

With liim fell the courage of the besieged. They yielded, 
and the victors entering the town, found the wounded officer, 
and kindly sent him to his father's castle, which was not far 
distant. Here he endured all the agonies which generally 
attend gunshot wounds, and an inflammatory fever which 
supervened, brought him to the verge of the grave — when, 
"O! miracle!" exclaims his biographer, "it being the eve 
of the feast of the glorious saints Peter and Paul, the prince 
of the apostles appeared to him in a vision, and touched him, 
whereby he was, if not immediately restored to health, at 
least put in a fair way of recovery." Now the fact is, that 
the patient uttered not a syllable regarding his vision at the 
time; nevertheless, we are gravely assured that the miracle 
was not the less a fact. Be this, however, as it may, Igna- 
tius undoubtedly recovered, though slowly. 

During his long convalescence, he sought to beguile the 
tedious houre of irksome inactivity passed in the sick cham- 
ber by reading all the books of knight-errantry which could 
be procured. The chivalrous exploits of the Eolands and 
Amadises made a deep impression upon his imagination, 
which, rendered morbidly sensitive by a long illness, may 
well be supposed to have been by no means improved by such 
a course of study. When these books were exhausted, some 
pious friend brought him the Lives of the Saints. This 
work, however, not suiting his taste, Ignatius at first flung 
it aside in disgust, but afterward, from sheer lack of better 
amusement, he began to read it. It presented to him a new 
phase of the romantic and marvelous, in which he so much 
delighted. He soon became deeply interested, and read it 
over and over ao;ain. The strano^e adventures of these 
saints — the praise, the adoration, the glorious renown which 
they acquired, so fired his mind, that he almost forgot his 
favorite Paladins. His ardent ambition saw here a new 
career opened up to it. He longed to become a saint. 

Yet the military life had not lost its attractions for him. 
It did not require the painful preparations necessary to earn 
a saintly reputation, and was, moreover, more in accordance 
with his education and tastes. He long hesitated which course 
to adopt — whether he should win the laurels of a hero, or 
earn the crown of a saint. Had he perfectly recovered from 
the effects of his wound, there is little doubt but that he 



" Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 101 

would have chosen the laurels. But this was not to be. 
Although he was restored to health, his leg remained hope- 
lessly deformed — he was a cripple for life. 

It appeared that his restorer, St. Peter, although upon the 
whole a tolerably good physician, was by no means an expert 
surgeon. The broken bone of his leg had not been properly 
set ; part of it protruded through the skin below the knee, 
and the limb was short. Sorely, but vainly, did Ignatius 
strive to remove these impediments to a military career, 
which his unskillful though saintly surgeon had permitted to 
remain. He had the projecting piece of bone sawn off, and 
his shortened leg painfully extended by mechanical appliances, 
in the hope of restoring it to its original tine proportions. 
The attempt failed ; so he found himself, at the age of thir- 
ty-two, with a shrunken limb, with little or no renown, and 
by his incurable lameness, rendered but slightly capable of 
acquiring military glory. Nothing then remained for him 
but to become a saint. 

Saintship being thus, as it were, forced upon him, he at 
once set about the task of achieving it, with all that ardor 
which he brought to bear upon every pursuit. He became 
daily absorbed in the most profound meditations, and made a 
full confession of all his past sins, which was so often inter- 
rupted by his passionate outbursts of penitent weeping, 
that it lasted three days.* To stimulate his devotion, he 
lacerated his flesh with the scourge, and abjuring his past 
life, he hung up his sword beside the altar in the church of 
the convent of Montserrat. Meeting a beggar on the public 
road, he exchanged clothes with him, and thus habited in 
the loathsome rags of the mendicant, he retired to a cave 
near Menreze, where he nearly starved himself. 

When he next reappeared in public, he found his hopes 
almost realized. His fame had spread far and wide ; the 
people flocked from all quarters to see him — visited his cave 
with feelings of reverend curiosity — and nothing was 
thought of but the holy man and his severe penances. But 
now the Evil Spirit began to assail him. The tender con- 
science of Ignatius began to torment him with the fear that 
all this public notice had made him proud ; that, while he had 

'•'Helyot, Hist, des Ord. Mon., Rel. et Mil., tome vii, page 456. 



102 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

almost begun to consider liimselt a saint, he was, in reality, by- 
reason of that belief itself, the most heinous of sinners. So 
imbittered did his life become in consequence of these 
thoughts, that he went well nigh distracted. 

But God supported him ; and the Tempter, baffled in his 
attempts, fled. Ignatius fasted for seven days, neither eat- 
ing nor drinking ; went again to the confessional, and, re- 
ceiving absolution, was not only delivered from the stings of 
his own conscience, but obtained the gift of healing the troubled 
conseiences of others/' This miraculous gift Ignatius is be- 
lieved to have transmitted to his successors, and it is in a 
great measure to this belief, that the enormous influence of 
the Company of Jesus is to be attributed, as we shall see 
hereafter. 

Now that Ignatius could endure his saintship, without be- 
ing overwhelmed by a feeling of sinfulness, he pursued his 
course with renewed alacrity. Yet it was in itself by no 
means an attractive one. In order to be a perfect Cath- 
olic saint, a man must become a sort of misanthrope — cast 
aside wholesome and cleanly apparel, go about clothed in 
filthy rags, wearing haircloth next his skin, and, renouncing 
the world and its inhabitants, must retire to some noisome 
den, there to live in solitary meditation, with wild roots and 
water for food, daily applying the scourge to expiate his 
sins — of which, according to one of the disheartening doc- 
trines of the Catholic Church, even the just commit at least 
seven a dag. The saint must enter into open rebellion against 
the laws and instincts of human nature, and consequently, 
against the will of the Creator. And although it can not be 
denied that some of the founders of monastic orders conscien- 
tiously believed that their rules were conducive to holiness 
and eternal beatitude, nevertheless, we may with justice, 
charge them with overlooking the fact that, as the transgres- 
sion of the laws of nature invariably brings along with it its 
own punishment — a certain evidence of the Divine displea- 
sure — true holiness can not consist in disregarding and op- 
posing them. 

Ignatius, however, continued his life of penance, made 
to the Virgin Mary a solemn vow of perpetual chastity, 

'*Helyot, Hist, des Ord. Mon., Eel. et Mil., tome vii, page 456. 



*'Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 103 

begged for bread, often scourged liimsclf, and spent many 
hours a day in prayer and meditation. AViiat he meditated 
upon, Grod only knows. After a few months of this ascetic 
life, he published a little book, which much increased his 
fame for sanctity. It is a small octavo volume, and bears 
the title of /Spiritual Uxet'cisesP As this work, the only one 
he has left, is the acknowledged standard of the Jesuits' re- 
ligious practice, and is by them extolled to the skies, we 
must say some few words about it. 

First of all we shall relate tlie supernatural origin assigned 
to it by the disciples and panegyrists of its author. 

He (Ignatius) had already done much for God's sake, and 
God now rendered it back to him with usury. A courtier, a 
man of pleasure, and a soldier, he had neither the time nor 
the will to gather knowledge from books. But the knowl- 
edge of man, the most difficult of all, was divinely revealed 
to him. The master who w^as to form so many masters, was 
himself formed by divine illumination. He composed the 
Spiritual Exercises, a work which had a most important place 
in his life, and is powerfully reflected in the history of his 
disciples. 

This quotation is from Cretineau Joly, (vol. i, p. 18,) an 
author who professes not to belong to the society but whose 
book was published under the patronage of the Jesuits, who, 
he says, opened to him all the depositories of unpublished 
letters and manuscripts in their principal convent, the Gesu 
at Rome ; he wrote also a virulent pamphlet against the 
great Pontiff Clement XIV, the suppressor of the Jesuits. 
Hence we consider ourselves fairly entitled to rank the few 
quotations we shall make from him as among those emanat- 
ino' from the writers that belono; to the Order ; and we are 
confident that no Jesuit would ever think of repudiating 
Cretineau Joly. This author proceeds to state that in the 
manuscript in which Father Jouvency narrates in elegant 



" By tlie term Spiritual Exercises, Catholics understand that course of 
solitary prayer and religious meditation, generally extended over many 
days, which candidates for holy orders have to perform in the seclusion of 
a convent, previous to being consecrated. Again, when a priest incurs 
the displeasure of his Superior, he is sent as a sort of prisoner to some 
convent, there to perform certain prescribed spiritual exercises, which, in 
this case, may last fi'om one to three weeks. 



104 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

Latin those strange events, it is said — this light shod by the 
divine will upon Ignatius showed him openly and without vail 
the mystery of the adorable Trinty and other arcana of re- 
ligion. He remained for eight days as if deprived of life. 
What he witnessed during this ecstatic trance, as well as in 
many other visions which he had during life, no one knows. 
He had indeed committed these celestial visions to paper, but 
shortly before his death he burned the book containing them, 
lest it should falj into unworthy hands. A few pages, how- 
ever, escaped his precautions, and from them one can easily 
conjecture that he must have been from day to day loaded 
with still greater favors. Chiefly was he sweetly ravished 
in contemplating the dignity of Christ the Lord, and his in- 
conceivable charity toward the human race. As the mind of 
Ignatius was filled with military ideas, he figured to himself 
Christ as a general fighting for the divine glory, and calling 
on all men to gather under his standard. Hence sprang his 
desire to form an army of which Jesus should be the chief 
and commander, the standard inscribed — ^'Ad majorem Dei 
Gloria/m.'' 

With deference to M. Joly, we think that a more mundane 
origin may be found for the " Exercises," in the feverish 
dreams of a heated imagination. Be this as it may, however, 
we shall proceed to lay before our readers a short analysis 
of it, extracted from Cardinal Wiseman's preface to the last 
edition. He says : " This is a practical, not a theoretical 
Avork. It is not a treatise on sin or on virtue ; it is not a 
method of Christian perfection, but it contains the entire 
practice of perfection, by making us at once conquer sin and 
acquire tiie highest virtue. The person who goes through 
the Exercises is not instructed, but is made to act; and this 
book will not be intelligible apart from this view." 

The reader will observe that it is divided into four iveeJcs; 
and each of these has a specific object, to advance ihe exer- 
citant an additional step toward perfect virtue. If the work 
of each week be thoroughly done, this is actually accomjylisJiedP 

"The first week has for its aim the cleansing of the con- 
f^cience from past sin, and of the affections from their future 
dangers. Eor this purpose, the soul is made to convince 

" The italics here are our own. 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 105 

itself deeply of the true end of its being — to serve God and 
be saved, and of the real inutility of all else. This considera- 
tion has been justly called by St. Ignatius, the principle or 
foundation of the entire system." The Cardinal assures us 
that the certain result of this first week's exercises is, that 
''sin is abandoned, hated, loathed." 

'' In the second, the life of Christ is made our model; by 
a series of contemplations of it, we become familiar with its 
virtues, enamored of his perfections ; we learn, by copying 
him, to be obedient to God and man ; meek, humble, affec- 
tionate ; zealous, charitable, and forgiving; men of only one 
wish and one thought — that of doing ever God's holy will 
alone ; discreet, devout, observant of every law, scrupulous 
performers of every duty. Every meditation on these sub- 
jects shows us how to do all this ; in fact, makes us really 
do it.'-= The third week brings us to this. Having desired 
and tried to be like Christ in action, we are brought to wish 
and to endeavor to be like unto him in suffering. For this 
purpose his sacred passion becomes the engrossing subject of 
the Exercises. But she (the soul) must be convinced and 
feel, that if she suffers, she also shall be glorified with him ; 
and hence the fourth and concluding week raises the soul to 
the consideration of those glories which crowned the humilia- 
tions and suffering of our Lord." Then after a highly fig- 
urative eulogium upon the efficacy of the Exercises " duly 
performed," the reverend prelate proceeds to show that the 
one "essential element of a spiritual retreat," (for so the 
Exercises reduced to action are properly called,) "is direction^ 
In the Catholic church no one is ever allowed to trust him- 
self in spiritual matters. The sovereign pontiff is obliged to 
submit himself to the direction of another in whatever con- 
cerns his own soul. The life of a good retreat is a good 
director of it. This director modifies, (according to certain 
written rules.) the order of the Exercises, to adapt them to 
the peculiar character of the exercitant ; regulates the time 
employed in them, watches their effects, and like a physician 
prescribing for a patient, varies the treatment according to 
the symptoms exhibited, encouraging those which suem 
favorable, and suppressing those which are detrimental to the 

* Stephens. 



106 " Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

desired result. "Let no one," says the Cardinal, ''think of 
undertaking these holy Exercises without the guidance of a 
prudent and experienced director." 

It will be seen that the loeeks of the Exercises do not 
mean necessarily a period of seven days. The original period 
of their performance was certainly a month; but even so, 
more or less time was allotted to each week's work according 
to the discretion of the director. Now, except in very par- 
ticular circumstances, the entire period is abridged to ten 
days : sometimes it is still further reduced, 

It will be observed from the above extracts that the Car- 
dinal, ignoring the fact that the sinner's conversion must be 
effected entirely by the operation of the Holy Spirit, seems 
to regard the unregenerate human soul merely as a piece of 
raw material, which the " director " may, as it were, manu- 
faclure into a saint, simply by subjecting it to the process 
prescribed in tlie Exercises. 

In regard to the merits of the book, I cannot agree either 
with Wiseman or a very brilliant Protestant writer," who, 
speaking of the approbation bestowed on it by Pope Paul III, 
says — "-Yet on this subject the chair of Knox, if now filled 
by himself, would not be very widely at variance with the 
throne of St. Peter." The book certainly does not deserve 
this high eulogium. However, it canuot be denied that, 
amidst many recommendations of many absurd and super- 
stitious practices proper to the Popish religiou, the little 
volume does contain some very good maxims and precepts. 
Eor instance, here are two passages to which I am sure that 
not even the most anti-Catholic Protestant could reasonably 
object. At page 16 it is said: 

" Man was created for this end, that he might praise and 
reverence the Lord his God, and, serving him, at length be 
saved.f But the other things which are placed on the earth 
were created for man's sake, that they might assist him in 
pursuing the end of creation, whence it follows, that they 
are to be used or abstained from in proportion as they benefit 
or hinder him in pursuing tliat end. Wherefore we ought 
to be indifferent toward all created things (in so far as they 
are subject to the liberty of our will, and not prohibited), so 

^•Stephens. fSee the Shorter Catechism, Qu. 1. 



"Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 107 

that (to the best of our power) we seek not health more than 
sickness, nor prefer riches to poverty, honor to contempt, a 
long life to a short one. But it is fitting, out of all, to choose 
and desire those things only which lead to the end." And 
again, at page 33, ''the third (article for meditation) is, to 
consider myself; who or what kind I am, adding comparisons 
which may bring me to a greater contempt of myself; as if 
I reflect how little I am when compared with all men, then 
what the whole multitude of mortals is, as compared with 
the angels and all the blessed: after these things I must 
consider what, in fact, all the creation is in comparison with 
God, the Creator, himself; what now can I, one mere human 
being, be I Lastly, let me look at the corruption of my whole 
self, the wickedness of my soul, and the pollution of my body, 
and account myself to be a kind of ulcer or boil, from which 
so great and foul a Hood of sins, so great a pestilence of vices 
has flown down. 

" The fourth is to consider what God is, whom I have thus 
offended, collecting the perfections which are God^s peculiar 
attributes and comparing them with my opposite vices and 
defects : comparing, that is to say, his supreme power, wis- 
dom, goodness, and justice, with my extreme weakness, 
ignorance, wickedness, and iniquity." 

But then the above Exercises are followed by certain Ad- 
ditions, which are recommended as conducing to their better 
performance. Some of these are very strange ; for instance, 
the fourth is, " to set about the Contemplation itself, now kneel- 
ing on the ground, now lying on my face or on my back, now 
sitting or standing, and composing myself, in the way in 
which I may hope the more easily to attain what I desire. 
In which matter, these two things must be attended to ; the 
first that if, on my knees or in any other posture, I obtain 
what I wish, I seek nothing further. The second, that on 
the point in which I shall have attained the devotion I seek, 
I ought to rest, without being anxious about pressing on until 
I shall have satisfied myself. The sixth, that I avoid those 
thoughts which bring joy, as that of the glorious resurrection 
of Christ ; since any such thought hinders the tears and grief 
for my sins, which must then be sought by calling in mind 
rather death or judgment. The seventh, that, for the same 
reasou, I deprive myself of all the brightness of the light. 



108 " Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

shutting the doors and windows so long as I remain there (in 
my chamber), except while I have to read, or take mj food." 
At page 55 we find, in the second Week : " The Fifth Con- 
templation is the application of the senses to those (contem- 
plations) mentioned above. After the preparatory prayer, 
with the three already mentioned preludes, it is eminently 
useful to exercise the five imaginary senses concerning the 
first and second contemplations in the following way, accord- 
ing as the subject shall bear : 

' The first point will be, to see in imagination all the per- 
sons, and, noting the circumstances which shall occur con- 
cerning them, to draw out what may be profitable to 
ourselves. 

' The second, by hearing as it were, what they are saying, 
or what it may be natural for them to say, to turn all to our 
own advantage. 

' The third, to perceive, by a certain inward taste and 
smell, how great is the sweetness and delightfulness of the 
soul imbued with divine gifts and virtues, according to the 
nature of the person we are considering, adapting to our- 
selves those things which may bring us some fruit. 

* The fourth, by an inward touch, to handle and kiss the 
garments, places, footsteps, and other things connected with 
such persons; whence we may derive a greater increase of 
devotion, or of any spiritual good. 

' This contemplation will be terminated, like the former 
ones, by adding in like manner, Pater noster.^ " 

At page 52, among other things "to be noted," is: 

" The second, that the first exercise concerning the Incarna- 
tion of Christ is performed at midnight ; the next at dawn ; the 
third about the hour of mass ; the fourth about the time of 
vespers ; the fifth a little before supper, and on each of them 
will be spent the space of one hour ; which same thing has 
to be observed henceforward, everywhere." 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Loyola's early tribulations — His inflexible Will — Obtains the critical 
Pledge of implicit obedience from his disciples — Bull of final recognition 
from the Pope. 

Loyola's next step toward holiness was a pilgrimage to 
Palestine to convert the infidels. What he did in the Holy 
Land we do not know ; his biographer tells ns only that he 
was sent back by the Franciscan friar who exercised there 
the Papal authority."" 

On his homeward voyage, Ignatius conceived that a little 
learning would perhaps help him in the task of converting 
heretics, and thus furnish him with an additional chance of 
rendering himself famous ; so after his return, he attended 
a school at Barcelona, for two years, where, a full-grown man 
of thirty-four, he learned the rudiments of the Latin lan- 
guage, sitting upon the same bench with little boys. 

Having failed to make any proselytes to his extravagauces 
at Barcelona, he went to Alcala, and studied in the university 
newly erected there by Cardinal Ximenes. Here he attracted 
much public notice by the eccentricities of his fanatical piety. 
He wore a peculiar dress of coarse material, and by his fer- 
vid discourse, contrived to win over to his mode of life, four 
or live young men, whom he called his disciples. But he 
was regarded with suspicion by the authorities, who twice 
imprisoned him. He and his converts were ordered to re- 
sume the common garb, and to cease to expound to the peo- 
ple the mysteries of religion.f Lidignant at this, Ignatius 

'Hel., Hist. Des Ord. Mon., Rel. et Mil., tome vii, p. 46L 
tibid, tome vii, page 61. 



110 ''Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery 

immediately set out for Paris, where, in the beginning of 
1528, he arrived alone, his companions having deserted him. 

His persecutions at Alcala had taught him prudence ; so 
that, although his attempts at notoriety in Paris, in the way 
of dress, manners and language, brought him before the tri- 
bunal of the Inquisition ,'-'-^ he nevertheless had managed 
matters so cautiously, as to escape all punishment. Here, 
while contending with the difficulties of the Latin grammar,| 
he was ever revolving in his vast and capacious mind, some 
new scheme for fulfilling his desires and gratifying his pas- 
sion for renown. But as yet he knew not what he was des- 
tined to accomplish. There seems no ground for supposing 
that he could already have formed the gigantic and compre- 
hensive project of establishing, on the basis on which it now 
stands, his wonderful and powerful society. No ; he only 
contrived, as he had done in Spain, to enlist some followers, 
over whom he could exercise an absolute control, for the fur- 
therance of any future project. In this, his success had far 
exceeded his expectations. The magnanimous and heroic 
Xavier, the intelligent and interesting Le Fevre, the learned 
Lainez, the noble and daring Rodrigues, and some three or 
four others, acknowledged him as their chief and master. 

It may at first sight, appear strange that such privileged 
intelligences should have submitted themselves to a compar- 
atively ignorant ex-officer. But when it is borne in mind, 
that Ignatius had a definite end, toward which he advanced 
with steady and unhesitating Steps, while his companions had 
no fixed plan — that he was endowed with an iron will, which 

'■'Hel., Hist. Des Ord. Mon., Rel. et Mil., tome vii,page 464. 

f Once for all, I promise my readers that I am not going to trouble tliem 
■with the narrative of all the miraculous legends related concerning Loyola. 
They are, in most instances, so absurd, as to be beneath the dignity of 
histor}'. Let the two following suffice as specimens. It is said that the 
devil, determined to prevent his learning Latin, so confused his intellect, 
that he found it impossible to remember the conjugation of the verb amo; 
whereupon he scourged himself unmercifully every day, until by that 
means the evil spirit was overcome ; after which, the saint was soon able 
to repeat amo in all its tenses. Again, when Ignatius was in Venice, on 
his way to the Holy Land, it is said that a wealthy senator of that city, 
Travisini by name, while luxuriously reclining on his bed of down, was 
informed by an angel that the servant of God was lying upon the hard 
stones under the portico of his palace. Whereupon the senator immedi- 
ately arose and went to the door, where he found Ignatius. 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. Ill 

neither poverty nor imprisonment, nor even the world's con- 
tempt, could overcome — that, above all, he had the art to 
flatter their respective passions, and to win their affections 
by using all his influence to promote their interests, it is less 
surprising- that he should have gained an immense influence 
over those inexperienced and ingenuous young men, on whose 
generous natures, the idea of devoting their lives to the wel- 
fare of mankind, had already made a deep impression. 
Loyola's courage and ambition were strongly stimulated by 
the acquisition of disciples so willing and devoted — so effi- 
cient for his purpose, so attached to his person ; and he began 
to consider how he might turn their devotion to the best 
account. 

After some conferences with his companions, he assembled 
them all on the day of the Assumption, 16th August, 1534, 
in the church of the Abbey of Montmartre, where, after Peter 
Le Fevre had celebrated mass, they each took a solemn vow 
to go to the Holy Land and preach the gospel to the Infidels. 
Ignatius, satisfied for the present with these pledges, left 
Paris, in order, as he asserted, to recruit his health by breath- 
ing his native air at Loyola before setting out on his arduous 
mission, and doubtless also to find solitude and leisure in 
which to meditate and devise means for realizino- his ambi- 
tious hopes. His disciples remained in Paris to terminate 
their theological studies, and he commanded them to meet 
him again at Venice, in the beginning of 1537, enjoining 
them, meanwhile, if any one should ask them what religion 
they professed, to answer that they belonged to the Society 
of Jesus, since they were Christ's soldiers.'-" 

Our saint preceded them to Venice, where he again encoun- 
tered some difl[iculties and a little persecution ; but he endured 
all with unflinching patience. He became acquainted with 
Pierra Caraff^a, (afterward Pope Paul IV). This harsh and 
remarkable man had renounced the bishopric of Theata. to 
become the companion of the meek and gentle Saint Gajetan 
of Tyenne, and with his assistance had founded the religious 
order of the Theatines. The members of this fraternity 
endeavored by exemplary living, devotion to their clerical 

c= Negroni expounds the word societas " quasi dicas cohortem aut centuriam 
que ad pugnam cum hostibus spiritualibus conserendam conscripta est." 



llij -'Sam:" ok, the History of My-stepiy. 

duties of preaching' and administering the sacraments, and 
ministering to the sick, to correct the evils produced through- 
out all Christendom by the scandalous and immoral conduct 
of the regular and secular clergy. To Caraffa, who had 
already acquired great influence, Ignatius attached himself, 
became an inmate of the convent he had founded, served 
patiently and devotedly in the hospital which he directed, and 
shortly became Carafla's intimate friend. This fixed at once 
the hitherto aimless ambition of Loyola. He conceived the 
idea of achieving power and fame, if not as the founder of a 
new order, at least as the remodeler of one already existing. 
With this design he submitted to Carafta a plan of reform 
for his Order, and strongly urged its adoption. But Caraffa, 
who perhaps suspected his motive, rejected his proposal, and 
offered to admit him as a brother of the order as it stood. 
This, however, did not suit Ignatius, whose proud nature 
could never have submitted to play even the second part, 
much less that of an insignificant member in a society over 
which another had all power and authority. He therefore 
declined the lienor, and at once determined to found a new 
religious community of his own. Aware, however, of the 
difficulties he might have to overcome, he resolved to proceed 
with the utmost caution. 

Being under a vow to go to convert the Infidels in the Holy 
Land, he gave out that to this work alone were the lives of 
himself and his companions to be devoted. Accordingly as 
soon as they arrived in Venice he sent them to Kome to beg 
the Pope's blessing on their enterprise, as he said ; and also, 
no doubt, to exhibit them to the Eoman court as the embryo 
of a new religious order. The reason assigned by his histo- 
rians for his not going to Kome along with them is, that he 
feared that his presence there might be prejudicial to them. 
It is just as likely that he was afraid, lest beneath his cloak 
of ostentatious humility, the discerning eye of Pope Paul 
might detect his unbounded ambition. 

At Eome his disciples were favorably received, the Pontiff 
bestowed the desired benediction, and they returned to Venice, 
whence they were to sail for Palestine. 

Here Ignatius prevailed upon them to take vows of per- 
petual chastity and poverty, and then, under pretext of the 
war which was raging at the time between the Emperor and 



•' Sam: " OR, THE History of Mystery. 113 

the Turks, they abandoned their mission altogether. So 
ended their pious pilgrimage. 

Taking with him Lainez and Le Fevre, Loyola then pro- 
ceeded to Rome, and craved audience of the Pope. 

The chair of St. Peter was at this time occupied by Paul 
Farnese, that same Pope who opened and in part conducted 
the Council of Trent ; who instigated the emperor to the 
war against the Protestants ; who sent, under his grandson's 
command, 12,000 of his own troops into Germany to assist 
in that war ; and who lifted up his sacrilegious hand to bless 
whoever would shed Protestant blood. He had been scan- 
dalously incontinent ; and if he did not, like Alexander VI, 
entirely sacrifice the interests of the church and of humanity 
to the aggrandizement of his own family, nevertheless, his 
son received the dukedom of Placentia, and his grandsons 
were created cardinals at the age of fourteen, and one of 
them was intended to be duke of Milan. However, Paul 
had some grandeur in his nature. He was generous, and 
therefore popular, and his activity was indefatigable. But 
Sarpi says of him, that of all his own qualities, he did not 
appreciate any nearly so much as his dissimulation.^ 

By this amiable pontiff Ignatius and his companions were 
kindly received. He praised their exemplary and religious 
life, questioned them concerning their projects, but took no 
notice of the plan they hinted at of originating a new re- 
ligious order. 

But Lovola was not thus to be discouraged. He summoned 
to Eome all his followers (who had remained in Lombardy, 
preaching with a bigoted fanaticism, and calling the citizens 
to repentance) and gave them a clearer outline than he had 
hitherto done of the Society he proposed to establish. This 
they entirely approved of, and took another vow (the most 
essential for Loyola's purpose) of implicit and unquestioning 
ohedieiue to their superior. Admire here the cautious and 
consummate art by which Ignatius, step by step, brought his 
associates to the desired point. 

Notwithstanding the repeated refusals of the Court of 
Eome to accede to his wishes, neither the courage nor the 
perseverance of Ignatius failed him. After much reflection, 



"Fra Paoli Sarpi, Hist, of the Council of Trent ^ p. 118. 
10 



114 '' Sam :'' or the History of Mystery. 

he at last tliouglit he had discovered a way to overcome the 
Pope's unwillingness. Consulting with his companions, he 
persuaded them to take a fourth vow, viz : one of obedience 
to the Holy See and to the Pope pro tempore, with the ex- 
press obligation of going, without remuneration, to whatever 
part of the world it should please the Pope to send them. 
He then drew up a petition, in which were stated some of 
the principles and rules of the order he desired to establish, 
and sent it to the Pope by Cardinal Contarini. 

This fourth vow made a great impression on the wily pon- 
tiff; yet so great was his aversion to religious communities, 
some of which were just then the objects of popular hatred 
and the plague of the Roman Court, that he refused to ap- 
prove of this new one until he had the advice of three car- 
dinals, to whom he referred the matter. Guidiccioni, the 
most talented of the three, strenuously opposed it ; but Paul, 
who perhaps had by this time penetrated the de-signs of 
Loyola, and perceived that the proposed society could not 
prosper unless by contending for and maintaining the supre- 
macy of the Holy See, thought it would be the best policy to 
accept the services of these volunteers, especially as it was 
a time when he much needed them. Consequently, on the 
27th September, 1540, he issu<:'d the famous bull, Megimini 
militantis Ecclesice, approving of the new Order under the 
name of "The Society of Jesus." We consider it indispens- 
able to give some extracts from this bull. 

" Paul, Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God, for a per- 
petual record. Presiding by God's will over the government 
of the Church, etc.'-'-' ''•"•'•' '■'•'"' '"■'■' Whereas, we have lately learned 
that our beloved son Ignatius de Loyola, and Peter Le Fevre, 
and James Lainez, and also Claudius Le Jay, and Paschasius 
Brouet, and Francis Xavier ; and also, Alphonso Salmeron 
and Simon Rodrigues, and John Coduri, and Nicholas de Boba- 
dilla, priests of the cities, etc.,^" **'-•■''■" inspired, as is piously 
believed, by the Holy Ghost, coming from various regions of 
the globe, are met together and become associates, and re- 
nouncing the seductions of this world, have dedicated their 
lives to the perpetual service of our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
of us, and of other our successors, Roman Pontiffs; and ex- 
pressly for the instruction of hoys and other ignorant people 
in Christianity ; and above all, for the spiritual consolation of 



" Sam: " or, The History of Mystery. 115 

the faithful in Christ, by hearing confessions/--'^ ^ '••" * '■' ^ We 
receive the associates under our protection and that of the 
Apostolic See ; conceding to them, moreover, that some among 
them may freely and lawfully draw up such Constitutions as 
they shall judge to be conformable to, etc. *''•"'••"'•'•=''•" We will, 
moreover, that into this Society there be admitted to the 
number of sixty persons only, desirous of embracing this 
rule of living, and no more, and to be incorporated into the 
Society aforesaid." 

The above-named ten persons were the first companions 
of Loyola, and, with him, the founders of the Society. But 
the merit of framing the Constitution which was to govern 
it belongs solely to Ignatius himself. He alone, among them 
all, w^as capable of such a conception. He alone could have 
devised a scheme bv which one free rational beino; is con- 
verted into a mere automaton — acting, speaking, even 
thinking, according to the expressed will of another. There 
is no record in history of any man, be he king, emperor, or 
pope, exercising such absolute and irresponsible power over 
his fellow-men as does the General of the Jesuits over his 
disciples. In Spiritual Exercises Loyola appears to be merely 
an ascetic enthusiast ; in the Constitution he shows himself a 
high genius, with a perfect and profound knowledge of human 
nature and of the natural sequence of events. Never was 
there put together a plan so admirably harmonious in all its 
parts, so wonderfully suited to its ends, or which has ever 
met with such prodigious success. 

Prompt, unhesitating obedience to the commands of the 
General, and (for the benefit of the Society, and ad majoram 
Dei gloriam) great elasticity in all other rules, according to 
the General's good-will, are the chief features of this famous 
Constitution, which, as it constitutes the Jesuit's code of 
morality, we shall now proceed to examine, doing our best to 
show the spirit in which it was dictated."' 



^The historian of Sam is indebted for this elegant sketch of the life of 
Loyola, and progress of the " Order of .Jesus/' thus far, principally to the 
learned investigations of the accomplished M. Nicolini, the most magnani- 
mous but indefatigable of the modern foes of .Jesuitism. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Was Ignatius Loyola a Bigot? — other Bigots of the same stamp — Sam's 
indignation aroused — Hideous sacrilege and spiritual tyranny — Ferinde 
ac si cadaver. 

" But Ignatius Loyola was a bigot," say tlie more mild ex- 
tenuators of his system, and much is to be forgiven the 
devotee of an idea so holy as that embodied in the motto of 
the Society founded by him. " Ad majoram dei gloriam,^^ 
should cover a multitude of sins ! 

" Pah ! " says Sam, " and so your mild philosophy might 
prate concerning Mohammed, who, with fire and sword to the 
cleaving asunder of the joints and marrow of nations, car- 
ried that other idea, ' God is great and Mohammed is his 
Prophet,' throughout the eastern world, and with his foot 
upon the neck of the subjugated peoples, compelled them to 
call aloud that charmed phrase. So the drunken Nero burns 
a city, the huge oblation to his fiddle, which happened to be 
just then his supreme fantasy — his God ! And it is such 
hideous and savage selfists as Loyola, Mohammed, and Nero, 
that you, daintily, in set form of speech, name bigots, for- 
sooth ! " 

Bigoted, unreasonably devoted to what ? to an inspiration, 
to an idea or a whim? These have led alike to carnage, 
crime and horror ; alike, they have rendered names illustri- 
ously, infamously notorious ; alike they have caused men to 
be worshiped in the place of God ; alike in each, hideous, 
cunning egotism has taken shelter behind a phrase. God ! 
Prophecy ! and Music ! the most beautiful and exalting of 
all words which constitute, in the ideas they represent, the 
triune hope of humanity, have been respectively, used and 
appropriated as "magic shields'' for the protection of the 
arch evil doors against our race. 
iU6; 



''Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 117 

"And, yes," continues Sam, indignantly, "another sacred 
word has been as foully misapplied. It was the ' destiny ' 
of the mathematical monster. Napoleon I, to tear the tinseled 
royalties of Europe into shreds, to form the emblazoned robe 
of patchwork which was to wrap the imperial pigmy for 
awhile. 

" It was the ' destiny ' of Napoleon II, to die early of the pre- 
cocious development of this selfsame faculty of mathematics 
with which he was blessed, alono- with Zera Colburn — the 
' Nigger Calculator ' — and sundry other semi-idiotic innocents 
of the same order. It was ' destiny ' which led the ' kite's 
eg^^ hatched in the eagle's nest ' — Napoleon III, of France — 
through the gloomy mists of massacre and perjury, to a 
gilded stall which he has dared to ' name a throne.' 

"Ay, these are 'bigots' for you," roars Sam; "yes, 
bigots — bigots of the old sort, cold, crafty, coward monsters, 
who have stolen the watchwords of instinct and of freedom 
for their impious exaltation. 

"They must be God's 'i' faith;' — 'the butcher shall be 
butchered in his own stall, and a sea of blood shall hold his 
soul among its monsters I' " 

The Titan shakes his finger at the East, and smiling, 
calmly says: " Thy day is past, thou storied, gorgeous East! 
Thine unnatural crimes, in name of every sacredness, shall 
no longer pass unchallenged ! 

" How dares t thou crush the life and heart out of ' him ' 
who walks with upright countenance before the Lord, w^hen 
each several man is monarch, as old Adam was ? How 
darest thou, hemispherical and hoary ' bigot,' claim to be 
what thou art not — infallible? My people know me — the 
spirit, the will, the power of a New World — the luminous 
presence in the realm of thought ! Ay, I, Sam, shall yet 
relieve you, as I shall relieve my own children, from the pest- 
ilent absurdities of ' bigotry ! ' What am I but the gigantic 
individual, the sovereign man, the future Emperor of sky- 
rimmed Space ? 

" Thou must go back to first principles in me, thou dim 
and colorless Orient ! Man is of the earth, earthlv ; there- 
fore, as its superior Form, you must accept me ; you can not 
get away in time from the condition. It is the law of my 
being. I must yet assert for my children — for the Brother- 



118 ''Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

hood of mankind — not a God, not a prophecy, not a butcher's 
stall, not destiny, but a calm truth, and powerful edict — be 
yourselves — (tremendous phrase !) — ' be yourselves I ' he, first 
of all, Men! second, Warriors! third. Lovers! with a sub- 
lime justice, lovers alike of those who struggle and of those 
who win ; and then away with hounding bigotries I " 

Could he have been the lover of mankind who framed the 
" Constitutions of the Society " of Jesus ? We shall see 
whether he was not rather the satanic foe of that instinct of 
*' individuality" which underlies all just ideas of freedom, and 
which has been the immemorial antipode of despotism. Who 
could have based an association of men, for whatever purpose, 
upon the utter abnegation of this cardinal principle, but one 
who, isolated in selfism, ignored in hideous fantasy, the 
rights of others to live, and move, and have a b^ing, spiritu- 
ally. Let us give some idea of these monstrous " Con- 
stitutions." 

Huge corruptions and i^Tcat confusions had crept into the 
Eoman Catholic world. The different monastic orders were 
at w^ar with one another. The bishops accused the Pope of 
tyranny ; the Pope denounced the bishops as disobedient. 
The mass of the people were deplorably ignorant, and gen- 
eral disorder prevailed. 

Now mark with what admirable art, what profound sagacity 
Ignatius modeled a society, which, by displaying the virtues 
directly opposed to the then prevailing vices, should captivate 
the affections and secure the support of the good and the pious, 
while, by underhand practices, and above all, by showing- 
unusual indulgence in the confessional, it should obtain an 
influence over the minds of the more worldly believers. 

In order that diversity of opinion and the free exercise of 
individual will should not produce division and confusion 
within this new Christian community, Loyola enacted that in 
the whole society, there should be no will, no opinion, but 
the General's. But, in order that the General might bo 
enabled profitably to employ each individual member, as well 
as the collective energy and intelligence of the whole society, 
it was necessary that he should be thoroughly acquainted with 
his character, even to its smallest peculiarities. To insure 
tihis, Ignatius established special rules. Thus, regarding 
the admission of postulants, he says : 



" Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 119 

'' Because it greatly concerns God's service to make a good 
selection, diligence must be used to ascertain the particulars 
of their person and calling; and if the Superior who is to 
admit him into probation cannot make the inquiry, let him 
employ from among those who are constantly about his person 
some one whose assistance he may use, to become acquainted 
with the probationer, to live with him and examine him; 
some one endowed with prudence, and not unskilled in the 
manner which should be observed with so many various kinds 
and conditions of persons." '" In other words, set a skillful 
and prudent spy over him, to surprise him into the betrayal of 
his most secret thoughts. Yet, even when this spy has given 
a tolerably favorable report, the candidate is not yet admitted 
^ — he is sent to live in another house, in order that he may 
be more thoroughly scrutinized, to know whether he is fitted 
to be admitted to probation, f When he is thought suited 
for the Society, he is received into the "house of first proba- 
tion ; " and, after a day or two, " he must open his conscience 
to the Superior, and afterward make a general confession to 
the confessor who shall be designed by the Superior, t But 
this is not all, for " in every house of probation there will 
be a skillful man to whom the candidate shall disclose all his 
concerns with confidence ; and let him be admonished to hide 
no temptation, but to disclose it to him, or to his confessor, or 
to the Superior ; nay, to take a pleasure in thoroughly mani- 
festing his whole soul to them, not only disclosmg his defects, 
but even his penances, mortifications and ' virtues.' § When 
the candidate is admitted into any of their colleges, he must 
again " open his conscience to the rector of the college, whom 
he should greatly revere and venerate, as one who holds the 
place of Christ our Lord, keeping nothing concealed from 
him, not even his conscience, which he sliould disclose to him, 
(as it is set forth in the Examen,) at the appointed season, 
and oftener, if any cause require it ; not opposing, not con- 
tradicting, nor showing an opinion, in any case opposed to his 
opinion." 

The information thus collected regarding the tastes, habits, 



** Const. Socie. Jesu. pars 1, cap i, § 3. f Const, pars 1, cap ii, § 1. 
I Const, pars i, cap. iv, § 6. § Const, pars vi, cap. i, § 1. 



120 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

and inclinations of every member, is communicated to the 
General, who notes it down in a book, alphabetically arranged, 
and kept for the purpose, in which also he receives twice a 
year a detailed report upon every member of the Society, he 
from time to time adds whatever seems necessary to com- 
plete each delineation of character, or to indicate the slight- 
est change. Thus, the General knoTvdng the past and the 
present life, the thoughts, the desires of every one belonging 
to the Society, it is easy to understand how he is enabled 
always to select the fittest person for every special service. 

But this perfect knowledge of his subordinates' natures 
would be of but little use to the General, had he not also an 
absolute ^aid uncontrolled authority over them. The Consti- 
tution has a provision for insuring this likewise. It declares 
that the candidate " niust regard the Superior as Christ the 
Lord, and must strive to acquire perfection in every point, in 
execution, in will, in intellect; doing what is enjoined with 
all celerity, spiritual joy and perseverance ; persuading our- 
selves that everything is just; suppressing every repugnant 
thought and judgment of one's own, in a certain obedience ; 
o o o o c= c= ^Y^(\ Iqj^ every one persuade himself that he who 
lives under obedience should be moved and directed, under 
Divine Providence, by his Superior, just as if he were a corpse, 
(perinde ac si cadaver esset,) which allows itself to be moved 
and led in any direction. And so absolutely is this rule of 
submissive obedience enforced, that the Jesuit, in order to obey 
his General, must not scruple to disobey God. The warnings 
of conscience are to be suppressed as culpable weaknesses ; the 
fears of eternal punishment banished from the thoughts as 
superstitious fancies ; and the most heinous crimes, when 
committed by command of the General, are to be regarded as 
promoting the glory and praise of God. 

Sam is, to be sure, no lover of Jack-Cadeism in any of its 
forms, and regards the Revolutionary spirit as an instinct to 
be carefully w^atched, lest it should fall into dangerous ex- 
tremes ; but there never has been the time yet — even since 
he dangled the Red men by their scalp-locks before his 
eyes — when he did not feel moved unto wrath at the hearing 
of such frightful lies as this against God and his children ; and 
so have such lies thriven in his hand, that in these latter 



''Sam:^' or, the History of Mystery. 121 

days, his fingers verily tingle to grip, sponsors and all, in 
the heavy clutch of his annihilating anger ! 

What a mockery ! " The Jesuit, in order to obey his Gen- 
eral, must not scruple to disobey God." " Crimes, when com- 
mitted by the command of the General, are to be regarded 
as promoting the glory and praise of God." Hideous mock- 
ery ! While Sam stands still to thmk — to realize — the throes 
of agonized earth beneath his feet rock him as if the Great 
Mother were convulsed with sobbing ! A terrible story — 
that thus man should be unto his brother ! A more hideous 
Cain hath arisen — for while that first Cain slew the body, 
this one hath slain the soul — soul, sense and conscience ! 

Ah! that Keverence — that sublimest instinct, should be 
thus abused ! — that the cold and cunning devices of this 
Loyola Fratricide, should, by artfully shading off this noble 
fatuity into forms, each seemingly more crystallized and 
perfect than the last, lead soul, mind and will at last, into 
the dizzying labyrinth of Fanaticism, from whence, the "in- 
dividual" never escapes, and where the whole man is mur- 
dered ! 

" No constitution, declaration, or any order of living, can 
involve an obligation to commit sin, mortal or venial, unless 
the spirit comynand it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
or in virtue of holy obedience ; which shall be done in those 
cases or persons wherein it shall be judged that it will great- 
ly conduce to the particular good of each, or to the general 
advantage ; and, instead of the fear of offense, let the love 
and desire of all perfection succeed, that the greater glory 
and praise of Christ, our Creator and Lord, may follow." 

Sam is no egoist ; he believes profoundly in the sentiment 
of modern " Protestant " Christianity ; but how can that faith 
which took for its apostles, " men of no account," to be the 
mythical representatives of Freedom, submit to be the slaves 
of those who commit sin, mortal or venial, " in the name of 
our Lord Jesus Christ," or "in virtue of holy obedience I " 
Obedience I to what ? The command of the Superior — the 
General — the Emperor — the Czar — the Tyrant over soul as 
well as body ; over mind as well as will ; the despot, before 
the face of whom, the swollen head of Caligula diminishes 
to a very point of infamy, in the story of old Time. What 
a thought for the proud and self-poised sons of freedom to 
11 



122 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

dwell upon, "just as if it were a corpse wliicli allows itself to 
be moved and led in any direction, by a single man ! Im- 
becile fatuity ! and dost thou dare to hope to wreak upon the 
children of Sam, the overgrown curse — the malignities of 
which the electric thunders of modern progress, under his 
lead, shall overcome ! 

It can not be that it is a comfortable creed for Calvinistic 
Protestantism, this — that a mortal man is to recognized as 
God ! Yet it is thus that the Jesuit must believe, and in 
conformity with this must act. We shudder at the thought 
of all the atrocities which had been perpetrated at the order 
of this other old man of the mountain, who presents to his 
agents the prospects of eternal bliss as the reward of their 
obedience. 

But this is not enough. Not content with having thus 
transferred the allegiance of the Jesuit from his God to his 
General, the Constitution proceeds to secure that allegiance 
from all conflict with the natural affections or worldly inter- 
ests. The Jesuit must concentrate all his desires and affec- 
tions upon the Society. He must renounce all that is dear 
to him in this life. The ties of family, the bonds of friend- 
ship, must be broken. His property must, within a year 
after his entrance into the Society, be disposed of at the bid- 
ding of the General; and he will accomplish a work of 
greater perfection if he dispose of it in benefit of the Society. 
And that his better example may shine before men, he must 
put away all strong affections for his parents, and refrain 
from the unsuitable desire of a bountiful distribution, arising 
from such disadvantageous afiFections.'-'-' 

He must, beside, forego all intercourse with his fellow- 
men, either by word of mouth or by writing,| except such as 
his Superior shall permit. He shall not leave the house, ex- 
cept at such times and with such companions as the Superior 
shall allow. Nor within the house shall he converse, without 
restraint, with any one at his own pleasure, but ^ith such 
only as shall be appointed by the Superior.^ Such was the 

'■•*Examen, iv, § 11 ; and Const, pars iii, cap. i, § 7-9. 

t After his entrance into the house of first probation, the .Jesuit is not 
allowed either to receive or send away any letter which has not been pre- 
viously read by his Superior. 

I Const, pars iii, cap. i, § 2, 3. 



"Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 123 

strictness with which these rules were enforced, that Francis 
Borgia, Duke of Canclia, afterward one of the saints of the 
Society, was at first refused admittance into it, because he 
delayed the settlement of the affairs of his dukedom, and 
refused to renounce all intercourse with his family ; and al- 
though, by a special rescript from the Pope, he was enrolled 
as a member, Ignatius, for three years, sternly denied him 
access to the house of the community, where he was not ad- 
mitted, till he had renounced all intercourse with the external 
w^orld. 

But not only is all friendly communication forbidden to 
the Jesuit, but he is also placed under constant espionage. 
He is never permitted to walk about alone, but, whether in 
the house or out of doors, is always accompanied by two of 
his brothers.'-'' Each one of this party of three acts, in fact, 
as a spy upon his two companions. Not, indeed, that he has 
special instruction from his Superior to do so, but knowing 
that they, as well as himself, have been taught that it is 
their duty to inform the General of every suspicious or pecu- 
liar expression uttered in their hearing, he is under constant 
fear of punishment, should either of them report anything 
regarding the other which he omits to report likewise. Hence 
it is very seldom that a Jesuit refrains from denouncing his 
companion. If he does not do so at once, his sinful neglect 
becomes revealed in the confessional, to the special confessor 
appointed by the Superior. 

Then, in order that these members, so submissive in action 
to their General, should not differ in opinion among them- 
selves, and so occasion scandal in the Catholic world, and to 
oppose a uniformity of doctrine to that of the free examen 
of the Protestants, the Constitution decrees as follows : " Let 
all think, let all speak, as far as possible, the same thing, 

"Let not any reader accuse me of inaccuracy on this point upon the 
ground that Jesuits actually walk about the streets in this country single, 
or even in disguise. They must take notice that every rule of the Con- 
stitution is this clause — •' Except the General order otherwise, for the 
greater glory of God, and the benefit of the Society." It is not "for the 
greater glory of God, and the benefit of the Society," that the Jesuit, to 
escape suspicion, should go alone? — that he should be introduced into 
your family circle as a Protestant gentleman ? — that he should, to gain 
our unsuspecting confidence, enact the part of your gay companion at 
theaters, concerts and balls? — that he should converse with you upon re- 
ligious masters, beginning always by cursing the Pope, etc.? 



124 " Sam: '' or, the History of Mystery. 

according to tlie apostle. Let no contradictory doctrines, 
therefore, be allowed, either by word of mouth or public ser- 
mons, or in written book, which last shall not be published 
without the approbation and the consent of the General ; and 
indeed, all difference of opinion regarding practical matters 
should be avoided.''* Thus, no one but the Greneral can ex- 
ercise the right of uttering a single original thought or 
opinion. It is almost impossible to conceive the power, 
especially in former times, of a General having at his abso- 
lute disposal such an amount of intelligences, will and 
energies. 

At a glance how terrible seems this postulate. "No one 
but the General can exercise the right of uttering a single 
original thought or opinion." How ludicrous ! a man-God ! 
the infallible mated with the fallible ! 

The physical bonds of feudalism, of absolute slavery, 
repulsive as they are, seem the merest silken ties, compared 
to this monstrous despotism, this double tyranny ! What 
then is left of the man ? — surely not the soul ! It must then, 
indeed, be a corpse — '' cadaver ^^ — with a fearful realization. 

* Const, pars iii, cap. i § 18. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Insidious cunning of the Jesuits — Deatli extortions — Robbery and Ruin of 
their Devotees — Scandalous scenes in the interior — Life of Jesuitism- 
Loyola entangled with the " Sisters " — Secret Jesuits. 

But in no part of the Constitution is the diabolical cunning 
of the insidious spirit of Loyola more conspicuously exhibited 
than in the rules he has established concerning what he calls 
the VOID of poverty and gratuitous performance of the duties 
of the sacred ministry. 

The discredit and hatred which weighed upon the clergy 
and the monastic orders was in great part due to the osten- 
tatious display of their accumulated wealth and to the ve- 
nality of their sacred ministry. To guard against this evil, 
Ignatius ordained that '' poverty should be loved and main- 
tained as the firmest bulwark of religion." The Jesuit was 
forbidden to possess any property, either by inheritance or 
otherwise. He was required to live in an inexpensive house, 
to dress plainly, and avoid all appearance of being wealthy. 
The churches and religious houses of the order were to be 
without endowments. The colleges alone were permitted to 
accept legacies or donations for the maintenance of students 
and professors. No limit was assigned to these gifts, the 
management of which was intrusted entirely to the General, 
with power to appoint rectors and administrators under him. 
These functionaries, generally chosen from among the coadju- 
tors, and very rarely from the professed Society, although 
debarred by their vow of perpetual poverty from the posses- 
sion of the smallest amount of property, are yet, by this 
ingenious trick, enabled to hold and administer the entire 
wealth of the Society. We shall afterward see, and especially 

(i2o) 



126 "Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

in the famous process of Lavallette, in what a large sense 
they understood the word administer. So much for the dis- 
play of wealth. With respect to the venality of the sacred 
ministry, they declared that '' no Jesuit shall demand or 
receive pay, or alms, or remuneration for mass, confessions, 
sermons, lessons, visitations, or any other duty which the 
Society is obliged to render, and to avoid even the appearance 
of covetousness, especially in offices of piety which the Society 
discharges for the succour of souls, let there he no box in the 
church, into which alms are generally put by those who go 
thither to mass, sermon, confession, etc.* Thus the Jesuit 
refuses to accept a few paltry sixpences for performing mass, 
or a fee of some shillings per quarter for teaching hoys. He 
disdains to appear mercenary. He would much rather be 
jpoar. He looks for no reward. Yet those little boys whom 
he instructs gratuitously and with such affectionate tender- 
ness that he cannot bring himself to chastise them, but must 
have the painful though necessary duty performed by some 
one not belonging to the Society ; these boys, I say, will be- 
come men, many of them religious bigots, strongly attached 
to their kind preceptors, to whom they will then pay the debt 
of gratitude incurred in their youth. 

Alas for such gratitude ! How many families have had 
cause to deplore it ! How many children have been reduced 
to beggary by it ! How many ancient and noble houses has 
it precipitated from the hight of affluence and splendor into 
the depth of poverty and wretchedness ! Who can number 
the crimes committed in the madness of despair occasioned by 
the loss of the family inheritance ! That the parent may 
suffer a few years less of purgatory, the child has been too 
often condemned to misery in this life, and perhaps to eternal 
punishment in the next. But all this is of no consequence. 
The man who has been led thus to disregard one of his most 
sacred parental duties, in order to found a Jesuits' College of 
endow a professorship, will be saved, because they promise 
him : "In every college of our Society let masses be celebrated 
once a week forevefr, for its founder and benefactor, whether 
dead or alive. At the beginning of every month, all the 
priests who are in the college, ought to offer the same sacri- 

" Const, pars iv, cap. 1, § 1, 6. 



" Sam : ^^ or, the History of Mystery. 127 

fice for them; and a solemn mass, with a commemorative 
foast, shall be celebrated on the anniversary of the donation, 
and a wax candle ofiered to the donor or his descendants." 
Beside this, " the donor shall have three masses while alive, 
and three masses after his death, by all the priests of the 
Society, with the prayers of all its members ; so that he is 
made partaker of all the good works which are done, by the 
grace of God, not only in the college which he has endowed, 
but in the whole Society." '•■= 

By such allurements do these crafty priests, with diabolical 
cunning, snatch princely fortunes from the credulous and 
superstitious believers. And so assiduous and successful were 
they, even at the very beginning, that, only thirteen years 
after the establishment of the Order, during Loyola's life- 
time, they already possessed upward of a hundred colleges, 
very largely and richly endowed. 

Sow, let not my Protestant readers wonder how sensible 
men can be induced, by such ephemeral and ill-founded hopes, 
to disinherit their families to enrich these hypocritical monks. 
They must remember that the Komish believer views these 
matters in quite a different light from that in which they see 
them. Masses and prayers are, in his belief, not only use- 
ful, but indispensable. For lack of them he would writhe for 
centuries amid the tormenting fires of purgatory, the purify- 
ing pains of which are described by his priest, with appalling 
eloquence, as being far more excruciating than those of hell. 
According to the doctrine of his Church, every soul (one in a 
million only excepted) who is not eternally damned, must, 
ere it enter heaven, pass a certain time in this abode of tor- 
ture for the expiation of its sins. And let him not take 
comfort from the fact that his conscience does not reproach 
him with the commission of any heinous crime. The 
catalogue of sins by which he may be shut out from eternal 
blessedness is made fearfully long, and detailed with great 
minuteness. The most upright and pious of men must con- 
demn himself as a presumptuous sinner, if he for an instant 
harbors the hope of escaping the purifying fire. So he be- 
comes quite resigned to his fate, and all his care in this life 
is, how to appease the Divine anger and shorten the period of 

'• Const, pars iv, cap. 16, § 3. 



128 '' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

his exclusion from heaven. This he is taught to do — not by 
trusting to the righteousness of Jesus Christ, with the true 
repentance which manifests itself through a holy life, but by 
accumulating on his head hundreds of masses and millions 
of days of indulgence. Hence the innumerable masses and 
prayers which he sends before him during his life, as if to 
forestall his future punishment and bribe the Divine justice. 
And when the terrible moment arrives — that moment in 
which he is about to appear before the awful Judge, beneath 
whose searching eye his most secret thoughts lie bare — when 
trembling at the strict account that is about to be demanded 
of him, his fears represent to his excited imagination the most 
trifling shortcomings as mortal sins — when, with the decline 
of bodily strength, his enfeebled mind becomes more easily 
worked upon — then does his Jesuit confessor, his generous 
master, his kind, disinterested friend, come to give him the 
last proof of his ever-growing affection ! He seats himself 
at the bedside, and, serpent-like, under pretense of inducing 
him to repent of his sins, he draws him a fearful and impres- 
sive picture of the torments which await the damned. He 
descants to him with oily sanctity upon the enormity of offend- 
ing the Divine Savior, who shed his precious blood to redeem 
us. He terrifies him with the Almighty's implacable ven- 
geance ; and when his victim, choked with heart-rending 
agony, distracted, despairing of his ultimate salvation, is ready 
to curse God and set his power and anger at defiance — then, 
and not till then, does the Jesuit relent. Now he raises in 
the sufferer's heart the faintest hope that the Divine justice 
may possibly be disarmed, and mercy obtained by means of 
masses and indulgences. The exhausted man, who feels as 
if he were already plunged amid the boiling sulphur and 
devouring flames, grasps with a frantic eagerness at this 
anchor of salvation ; and, did he jiossess tenfold more wealth 
than he does, he would willingly give it all up to save his 
soul. It may be that his heart, yearning with paternal affec- 
tion, shrinks at the thought of condemning his helpless ones 
to beggary ; but nevertheless, as if the welfare of his family 
was necessarily connected with his own perdition, and that of 
the Jesuits with eternal beatitude, the family are invariably 
sacrificed to the Jesuits. 



" Sam :'' or, the History of Mystery. 129 

It is notorious, that the most diabolical tricks have been 
resorted to in the case of dying men whose better judgment 
and natural sense of duty have withstood such perfidious 
wiles. 

Alas ! the punishment of such criminal obstinacy was 
always near at hand ; the sick-chamber has been suddenly 
filled with flames and sulphurous vapor, as a warning to the 
impenitent sinner. And if he still resisted, the Evil Spirit 
himself, in his most frightful shape, has appeared to the 
dying man, as if waiting for his soul. Ah ! one's hair stands 
on end while listening to such sacrilegious maneuvers. The 
immense wealtli of the Jesuits has been bequeathed to them 
by wills made at the last hour ! 

Niocolini, in a note, gives us an ingenuous glimpse into 
the interior life of certain of these monastic traders in the 
ignorances and superstitions of mankind, which seems to 
indicate them as admirably inclined toward certain recum- 
bent, if not death-bed, experiences themselves : 

" In most monasteries, and more particularly in those of 
the Capuchins and Keformed, (Eeformati,) there begins at 
Christmas a series of feasts, which continue till Lent. All 
sorts of games are played, the most splendid banquets are 
given, and in the small towns, above all, the refectory of the 
convent is the best place of amusement for the greater num- 
ber of the inhabitants. At carnivals, two or three very mag- 
nificent entertainments take place, the board so profusely 
spread that one might imagine that Copia had here poured 
forth the whole contents of her horn. It must be remem- 
bered that these two orders live by alms. The somber silence 
of the cloister is replaced by a confused sound of merry- 
making, and its gloomy vaults now echo with other songs 
than those of the Psalmist. A ball enlivens and terminates 
the feast ; and, to render it still more animated, and perhaps 
to show how completely their vow of chastity has eradicated 
all their carnal appetite, some of the young monks appear 
coquettishly dressed in the garb of the fair sex, and begin 
the dance along with others transformed into gay cavaliers. 
To describe the scandalous scene which ensues, would be but 
to disgust my readers. I will only say, that I have myself 
often been a spectator at such saturnalia." 



130 " Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

When Ignatius was living at Barcelona, lie received many- 
kindnesses and favors at the hand of a lady called Rosello. 
But after he had left this place, his mind was so absorbed 
in devising so many and lofty projects, that he entirely for- 
got her. She did not, however, forget Ignatius. Hearing 
of his increasing sanctity, of his having become the founder 
and general of a new Order, and " being then a widow, she 
resolved to abandon the world, and live in accordance with 
his evangelical counsels, and under the authority of the Soci- 
ety. With this pious resolution, and being joined in her 
holy enterprise by two virtuous and noble Roman ladies, she 
asked and received from Paul, permission to embrace this 
kind of life."* Ignatius had the perception to see that 
these ladies would be an incumbrance to him and his Order. 
" Yet the gratitude which he owed to his kind benefactress 
weighed so much upon his heart, that he consented to receive 
them under his protection.'^ But he soon had reason to re- 
pent of this act of condescension ; the annoyance was so 
great, that he confessed himself that they gave him more 
trouble than the whole community, because he could never 
get done with them. At every moment he was obliged to 
resolve their strange questions, to allay their scruples, to 
hear their complaints, or settle their differences ;f and as, 
notwithstanding all his sagacity, Ignatius did not foresee of 
what advantage women could one day be to the Or(k>r, he 
applied to the Pope to be relieved of this charge, writing, at 
the same time, the following letter to Rosello : 

"Venerable Dame Isabella Rosello — My Mother and 
my Sister in Jesus Christ. — In truth, I would wish, for the 
greater glory of God, to satisfy your good desires, and pro- 
cure your spiritual progress by keeping you under my 
obedience, as you have been for some time past ; but the 
continual ailments to which I am subject, and all my occu- 
pations which concern the service of our Lord, or his vicar on 
earth, permit me to do so no longer. Moreover, being per- 
suaded, according to the light of my conscience, that this 
little Society ought not to take upon itself, in particular, the 

**Helyot, voL vii, p. 491. fidem. 



" Sam : " OR, THE History of Mystery. 131 

direction of any woman who may be engaged to ns by vows 
of obedience ; as I have fully declared to our Holy Father, 
tlie Pope, it has seemed to me for tlie greater glory of God, 
that I ought no longer to look upon you as my spiritual 
daughter, and only as my godmother, as you have been for 
many years, to the greater glory of God. Consequently, for 
the greater service, and the greater honor of the everlasting 
Goochiess, I give you, as much as I can, into the hands of 
the sovereign Pontiff, in order that, taking his judgment 
and will as a rule, you may find rest and consolation for the 
greater glory of the Divine Majesty. — At Eome, the first of 
October, 1549." 

The Pope complied with the request, and exempted the 
order from the superintendence of women ; and Ignatius 
enacted in the Constitutions, "that no member of the Soci- 
etv should undertake the care of souls, nor of relio-ious, or 
of any other women whatever," [Loyola's disciples thought 
proper to differ from him,] "so as frequently to hear their 
confessions, or give them directions, although there is no ob- 
jection to their receiving the confession of a monastery once, 
and for a special reason."* 

Dame Kosello and her two companions, being deprived of 
their spiritual father — not wishing to change him for another, 
so faithful were they — desisted at once from their pious un- 
dertaking, and for a time, nothing more was heard of female 
Jesuits; but about the year 1622, some females, more med- 
dling than devoted, took upon themselves the task of reviv- 
ing the Institution, although they were not authorized to do 
so. Nevertheless, they united into different communities, 
established houses for novitiates and colleges, chose a General 

" Const, pars vi, cap. iii, § 7. To be a nun's confessor was, and is stilL 
deemed a high privilege. Before the Council of Trent, this privilege be- 
longed to the order of St. Francis, under whose rules most of the nuns also 
live. The conduct of those brothers and sisters was in the highest degree im- 
proper and scandalous. Although the Franciscans are now no longer the 
titular confessors of these nuns, nevertheless they are on the most friendly 
terms with one another ; upon which friendship the Italians exercise their 
satirical and sarcastic wit. The confessors are now chosen by the respect- 
ive bishops, who confer the honor upon their most faithful adherents, as 
a reward for their services. The rivalries of those sainted women, and 
their ingenious contrivances to engage the smile of their holy father, are 
notorious to every one who lives near a convent. 



132 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

under the name of Proposta, and made vows into her hands 
of perpetual chastity, poverty and obedience. Not being re- 
strained by any law of seclusion, they went from place to 
place, bustling with gossip, and causing confusion and scan- 
dal throughout the Catholic camp. The community soon 
spread over a great part of lower Germany, France, Spain, 
and was especially numerous in Italy, where it originated. 

Urban YIII, after vainly endeavoring to impose upon them 
some rules of discipline, by a brief of the 21st of May, 1631, 
suppressed them.'---' 

Thus ended the society of Female Jesuits under this name 
and form. But another afterward sprung up in its place, 
under the appellation of Heligieuse du Sacre Coeur, having 
special rules very like those of the Jesuits, under whose ab- 
solute directions they now are. 

In Catholic countries, above all, in France, and, we are 
sorry to say, in Piedmont also, very many of the highest rank 
in society, send their daughters to be educated in these mon- 
asteries. Had Ignatius known what powerful auxiliaries 
these worthy nuns were likely to prove to his Order, he would, 
in all likelihood, have borne with those petty annoyances 
caused to him by good dame Eosello. Ladies educated by 
these nuns, bring into their homes all those dissensions and 
cause all those evils which are so ably described by the French 
professor, Michelet, who lost his chair the other day, for 
daring to attack these all-powerful auxiliaries of Napoleon — 
the Jesuits. 

The members of the Society are divided into four classes : 
the professed, coadjutors, scholars, and novices. There is 
also a secret fifth class, known only to the General and a few 
faithful Jesuits, which, perhaps more than any other, con- 
tributes to the dreaded and mysterious power of the Order. 
It is composed of laymen of all ranks, from the minister to 
the humble shoe-boy. Among the individuals composing 
this class are to be found many ladies, who, unknown and 
unsuspected, are more dangerous in themselves, and more 
accurate spies to the Company. These are afiiliated to the 
Society, but not bound by any vows. The Society, as a noble 
and avowed reward, promises to them forgiveness for all 

»Helyot, vol. iii, p. 492. 



" Sam: '' ok, the History of Mystery. 183 

their sins, and eternal blessedness ; and as a more palj)able 
mark of gratitude, protects them, patronizes them, and, in 
countries where the Jesuits are powerful, procures for them 
comfortable and lucrative places under government, or else- 
where. If this is not sufficient, they are paid for their ser- 
vices in hard cash, according to an article of the Constitution, 
which empowers the General to spend money on persons who 
will make themselves useful. In return for these favors, they 
act as the spies of the Order, the reporters of what goes on 
in those classes of society with which the Jesuit can not mix, 
and serve, often unwillingly, as the tools and accomplices in 
dark and mysterious crimes. Father Francis Pellio, brother 
to the famous Silvio, in his recent quarrel with the cele- 
brated Gioberti, to prove that the Order is not very deficient 
of supporters, as his opponent asserts, candidly confesses 
that, " the many illustrious friends of the Society, prelates, 
orators, learned and distinguished men of every description, 
the supporters of the Society, remain occult, and obliged to he 
silentJ^ * 

Here is the formula of the vow taken by the coadjutors : — 
"I. N., promise Almighty God, before his Virgin Mother, 
and before all the heavenly host, and you, reverend father. 
General of the Society of Jesus, holding the place of God, and 
of your successors ; or you, reverend father, Vice-General of 
the Society of Jesus, and of his successors, holding the place 
of God, perpetual poverty, chastity and obedience, and there- 
in, peculiar care in the education of hoys, according to the 
manner expressed in the apostolic letters, and in the Consti- 
tution of the said Society. At Eome, or elsewhere, in such 
a place, day, month and year." 



*' A. Vincenzo Gioberti Fra Pcllico della Campagnia di Gesu, pp. 35, 36. 



CHAPTEK XXII. 

Monstrous Doctrine of Probableism — Doctrine of Equivocation — Terrible 
Corruption of the Confessional. 

Having examined the process by whicli a man is annihi- 
lated and a Jesuit manufactured, it only remains for us to 
glance at the "moral code'^ of this holy company. This be- 
comes the more necessary that, even taking into consideration 
all the probabilities of corruption to be anticipated as growing 
out of the irresponsible control of many minds and bodies by 
the single will of one man — the General — who alone retains 
the right of willing — it yet becomes impossible for any hu- 
man imagination to at once realize and compass the enormi- 
ties to which this flagitious despotism led. Enormities that 
were not merely consequential upon gradual abuse, but were 
cotemporaneous with the "Constitutions," a6 origine ai^art 
and essential element of the system of Loyola. 

As the Order of Jesus had been especially " raised up by 
God " to battle with the austere doctrines of Luther and the 
spiritual asceticism of the vigilant Calvin, so it became ne- 
cessary that, by what one of their authorities calls " an oblig- 
ing and accommodating conduct" in the confessional, they 
should court popularity in opposition to these strict tenets. 

The great contest with the Protestants had left among the 
Eoman Catholics a tendency, a wish, we do not say to become 
the better Christians, but to make a greater display of their 
religion. All the external practices of devotion which, in 
their eyes, constituted the true believer, were more eagerly 
resorted to, and, above all, the confessional was frequented 
with unprecedented assiduity. To have a confessor exclu- 
sively for one's self, was the surest sign of orthodoxy, and 
became as fashionable as it is now to have a box at the opera. 
Sovereigns, ministers, courtiers, noblemen — every man, in 

(134) 



" Sam:" or the History of Mystery. 135 

short, wlio had a certain position in society, had his own 
acknowledged confessor. Even the mistresses of princes pre- 
tended to the privilege, and Madame de Pompadour will prove 
to her spiritual guide that it is dangerous to oppose the 
caprices of a favorite. The Jesuits saw at once the immense 
advantage they would derive if they could enlarge the num- 
ber of their clients, especially among the higher classes. 
They were already, in this particular, far advanced in the 
public favor ; they were known to be very indulgent ; had 
long since obtained the privilege of absolving from those sins 
which only the Pope himself could pardon ; and Suarez, their 
great theologian, had even attempted to introduce confession 
by letter, as a more easy and expeditious way of reaching all 
penitents.'--' 

But, by this time, they had made fearful progress in the 
art of flattering the bad passions, and winking at the vices 
of those who had recourse to their ministry, in order to make, 
as they believed, their peace with God. 

So, for example, if the Jesuit confessor perceives that a 
penitent feels inclined to make restitution of ill-gotten money, 
he will certainly encourage him to do so, praise him for his 
holy resolution, insist to be himself the instrument of the 
restitution, taking care, however, that it should be known 
again. But if another person accuse himself of theft, but 
show no disposition to make restitution, be sure that the 
Jesuit confessor will find in some book or other of his brother 
Jesuits, some sophistry to set his conscience at rest, and per- 
suade him that he may safely retain what he has stolen from 
his neighbor. 

The existence of books to which those pernicious maxims 
have been consigned, having put it out of the power of the 
Jesuits to impugn their genuineness in order to exculpate 
their Society, they have cast a reproach upon the teachers of 
their own Church, and even blasphemed Christianity. " The 
probableism," says their historian, "was not born Avith the 
Jesuits ; at the moment of their establishment, probableism 
reigned in the schools."! And again; "Ever since the 
origin of Christianity, the world had complained of the 

'•■' Cret. vol. ii, page 176. t ^^et. vol. iv, page 58. 



136 '' Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

austerity of certain precepts ; the Jesuits came to bring relief 
from these grievances."'" 

But, that our readers may judge for themselves of the 
character of Jesuitical morality, we shall lay before them 
some of their doctrines ; and in doing so, (be it observed,) we 
shall quote as our authorities none but Jesuit authors, and 
such as have been approved and are held in veneration by the 
Society. 

It is evident that, in the confessional, everything depends 
upon the conception formed of transgression and sin. Now, 
according to the Jesuitical doctrines, we do not sin, unless we 
have a clear perception and understanding of the sin as sin, 
and unless our will freely consent to it. | The following are 
the consequences which the Jesuit casuists have deduced from 
that principle : 

"A confessor perceives that his penitent is in invincible 
ignorance, or at leai5t innocent ignorance, and he does not 
hope that any benefit will be derived from his advice, but 
rather anxiety of mind, strife or scandal.'' Should he dis- 
semble ? Suarez affirms that he ought ; because, since his 
admonition will be fruitless, ignorance wdll excuse his peni- 
tent from sin. i 

Although he who, through inveterate habit, inadvertently 
swears a falsehood, may seem bound to confess the propen- 
sity, yet he is commonly excused. The reason is, that no 
one commonly reflects upon the obligation by which he is 
bound to extirpate the habit ; ^ * '■-' and, therefore, since 
he is excused from the sin, he mil also l>e excused from con- 
fession. Some maintain that the same may be said of blas- 
phemy, heresy, and of the aforesaid oath, * ^ * and, 
consequently, that such things, committed inadvertently, are 
neither sins in themselves, nor the cause of sins, and there- 
fore need not necessarily be confessed. § 

^ Le monde s'tait plaint depuis I'origine du Christianisme de Pausterite 
de certains precepts ; les Jesuites venaient au secoiir de ces doleances, etc. 
— Cret. vol. iv, page 50. 

f Busembaum, apud Ranke, vol. ii, page 394. 

I Antony Escobar. L. Theol. morallis vigenti-quatvor Societatis Jesu 
Doctoribus reseratus. — Ex. de pgenitentia ch. vii, N. 155. (Lugduni, 1656. 
Ed. Mvs. Brit.) 

§ Thomas Tambourin. Methodus Expeditae Confessiouis, L. ii, ch. iii, 
§ 8, N. 23. (Lugduni, 16-59. Antverpiae, 1656. Ed. Coll. Sion.) 



''Sam:^^ or the History of Mystery. 137 

Wherever tliere is no knowledge of wickedness, there is, 
also, of necessity, no sin. It is sufficient to have at least a 
confused notion of the heinousness of a sin ; without which 
knowledge, there would never be a flagrant crime. For in- 
stance, one man kills another, believing it indeed to be 
wrong, but conceiving it to be nothing more than a trifling 
fault. Such a man does not greatly sin, because it is knowl- 
edge only which points out the wickedness or the grossness 
of it to the will. Therefore, criminality is only imputed 
accordino; to the measure of knowledo-e. 

If a man commit adultery or suicide, reflecting, indeed, 
but still very imperfectly and superficially, upon the wicked- 
ness and great sinfulness of those crimes, however heinous 
may be the matter, he still sins but slightly. The reason 
is, that as a knowledge of the wickedness is necessary to 
constitute the sin, so is a full clear knowledge and reflection 
necessary to constitute a heinous sin. And thus I reason 
with Yasquez : In order that a man may freely sin, it is 
necessary to deliberate whether he sins or not. But he fails 
to deliberate upon the moral wickedness of it, if he does not 
reflect, at least by doubting, upon it during the act ; there- 
fore, he does not sin, unless he reflects upon the wickedness 
of it. It is also certain that a full knowledge of such wick- 
edness is required to constitute a mortal sin. For it would 
be unworthy the goodness of God to exclude a man from 
glory, and to reject him forever, for a sin on which he had 
not fully deliberated ; but if reflection upon the wickedness 
of it has only been partial, deliberation has not been com- 
plete ; and therefore the sin is not a mortal sin.'" 

The practical consequences of this doctrine have been ad- 
mirably represented by Pascal, in his happiest vein of irony. 
" Oh, my dear sir," says he to the Jesuit, who had exposed 
to him the aforementioned doctrine, " what a blessing this 
will be to some persons of my acquaintance ! I must posi- 
tively introduce them to you. You have never, perhaps, in 
all your life, met with people who had fewer sins to account 
for. In the first place, they never think of God at all ; their 
vices have got the better of their reason ; they have never 
known either their weakness or the physician who can cure 

^' George de Rhodes. Disput. Theologiae Scholasticoe, torn. i. Dis. xi, 
quaes, xi, sec. 1 and 2, and Dis. i, q. iii. sec. 2, ^3. (Lugduni, 1G71.) 

12 



138 -'Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

it ; tliey have never tliougbt of ' desiring the health of their 
soul/ and still less, of ' praying to God to bestow it/ so that, 
according to M. Lemoine, they are still in the state of baptis- 
mal innocence. They have ' never had a thought of loving 
God, or of being contrite for their sins ;' so that, according 
to Father Annat, they have never committed sin through the 
want of charity and penitence. Their life is spent in a 
perpetual round of all sorts of pleasures, in the course of 
which they have not been interrupted by the slightest re- 
morse. These excesses had led me to imagine that their 
perdition was ine\dtable ; but you, father, inform me that 
these same excesses secure their salvation. Blessings on 
you, my good father, for this new way of justifying people ! 
Others prescribe painful austerities for healing the soul, but 
you show that souls which may be thought desperately dis- 
eased, are in quite good health. What an excellent device 
for being happy, both in this world and the next ! I had 
always supposed that the less a man thought of God, the 
more he sinned ; but from what I see now, if one could only 
succeed in bringing himself not to think of God at all, 
everything would be pure with him in all time coming. 
Away with your half-and-half sinners, who retain some 
sneaking affection for virtue ! They will be damned, every 
soul of them. But commend me to your arrant sinners — 
hardened, unalloyed, out-and-out, thorough-bred sinners. 
Hell is no place for them ; they have cheated the devil, by 
sheer devotion to his service.*" 

But if you are not such an arrant, hardened sinner but 
that your conscience warns you of your guilt, then come to 
the doctrine of probability, the A B C of the Jesuitical code 
of morality, which will set your troublesome conscience at 
rest. Listen ! 

" The true opinion is, that it is not only lawful to follow 
the more probable but less safe opinion, * ^ * but also 
that the less safe may be followed, when there is an equality 
of probability. 

" I agree in the opinion of Henriquez, Vasquez, and Perez, 
who maintain that it is sufficient for an inexperienced and 
unlearned man to follow the opinion which he thinks to be 

''In quoting Pascal, we make use of the translation of Dr. M'Crie, to 
render the author's meaning better than we could do. P. 107. 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 139 

probable, because it is maintained by good men who are 
versed in the art ; altliougli that opinion mav be neither the 
more safe, nor the more common, nor the more probable. 

^' Sotus thinks that it would be very troublesome to a peni- 
tent, if the priest, after having heard his confession, should 
send him back without absolution, to confess himself again to 
another priest, if he could absolve him with a safe conscience 
against his own (the priest's) opinion ; especially when another 
priest might not, perhaps, be readily found who would believe 
the opinion of the penitent to be probable. 

" It may be asked whether a confessor may give advice to 
a penitent in opposition to his own opinion ; or, if he should 
think in any case that restitution ought to be made, whether 
he may advise that the opinion of others may be followed, 
who maintain that it need not be made ? I answer that he 
lawfully may '-•'' '-••' ^ ^ ^••' '■•■' because we may follow the opinion of 
another in his own practice, and therefore he may advise 
another person to follow it. Still it is better in giving ad- 
vice always to follow the more probable opinion to which a 
man is ever accustomed to adhere, especially when the advice 
is given in writing, lest contradiction be discovered. It is 
also sometimes expedient to send the consulting person to 
another doctor or confessor who is known to hold an opinion 
favorable to the inquirer, provided it be probable.'"' 

" Without respect of persons, may a judge, in order to 
favor his friend, decide according to any probable opinion, 
while the question of right remains undecided ? 

"If the judge should think each opinion equally probable, 
for the sake of his friend, he may lawfully pronounce sentence 
according to the opinion which is more favorable to the in- 
terests of that friend. He may, moreover, with the intent 
to serve his friend, at one time judge according to one opinion, 
and at another time according to the contrary opinion, pro- 
vided, only, that no scandal result from the decision.f 

" An unbeliever who is persuaded that his sect is probable, 
although the opposite sect may be more probable, would 



'' John of Salas. Disputationiim R. P. Joannis de Salas, e Soc, Jesu. in 
primam secundas D. Tliomre, torn 1, tr. ■', sec. 7, 9. N. 74, 83. (Barcinone, 
1607. Ed. Bibl. Arch. Cant. Lamb.) 

t Gregory of Valentia. Commentariorum Theologicorum, torn iii. dis v, 
quaes 7, punct iv. (Lutetiie Parisiorum, 1609. Ed. Coll. Sion.) 



140 " Sam: " ok, the Histoky of Mystery. 

certainly be obliged, at tbe point of death, to embrace tlie true 
faith, which he thinks to be the more probable '■'■' * '•'•" * '" But, 
except under such circumstances, he would not ^ * * * * '■•■' Add 
to this, that the mysteries of faith are so sublime, and the 
Christian morals so repugnant to the laws of flesh and blood 
that no greater probability whatever may be accounted suffi- 
cient to enforce the obligation of believing/^' 

" Indeed, while I perceive so many difl^erent opinions main- 
tained upon points connected with morality, I think that the 
Divine Providence is apparent ; for in diversity of opinions, 
the yoke of Christ is easily borne.f 

" A confessor may absolve penitents, according to the 
probable opinion of the penitent, in opposition to his own, 
and is even bound to do so. 

'' Again, it is probable that pecuniary compensation may 
be made for defamation ; it is also probable that it can 
not be made. May I, the defamed, exact to-day pecuniary 
compensation from my defamer, and to-morrow, and even on 
the same day, may I, the defamer of another, refuse to 
compensate with money for the reputation of which I have 
deprived him ? ^ * * * * I affirm that it is lawful to do at 
pleasure sometimes the one and sometimes the other. 

" Those ignorant confessors are to be blamed who always 
think that they w^ill do well in obliging their penitents to 
make restitution, because it is at all times more safe."| 

By this abominable doctrine the confessors were made to 
answer yes or no, as might be most agreeable to their peni- 
tents ; and these might oblige the confessor to absolve them 
of their sins if they only themselves believed that they were 
not sins. Imagine what an arrant knave the person inclined 
to do evil must have become, when to the firm belief that 
the absolution of the confessor cleanses from all crimes, was 
superadded the certainty that this confessor must absolve 
him almost according to his own wishes. We shudder to 
think of it. 

" Thomas Sanclies. Opus Morale in Prfecepta Decalogi. L. ii, c. i, N. 6. 
(Venetisif, 1614. Antuerpia3, 1624. Ed. Coll. Sion.) 

f Antony Escobar. Universse Tlieologi^ Moralis Receptiores absque lite 
Sententi, necnon Problematicso Disquisitiones, torn, i L. sect, i, de consc. c. 
2, N. 18. (Lugduni, 1652. Ed. Bibl. Acad. Cant.) 

I Simon de Lassac. Propositions dictees dans le college des Jesuites d' 
Amiens. De prtecept. Decal. c. i, art. 4. 



" 8am : '' OR, THE History of Mystery. 141 

Tlio doctrine of equivocation came in aid of that of prob- 
ableism. By the former, according to Sanchez, " it is per- 
mitted to use ambiguous terms, leading people to understand 
them in a different sense from that in which we understand 
them."''- "A man may swear," according to the same author, 
" that he never did such a thing (though he actually did it), 
meaning within himself that he did not do so on such a day 
or before he w^as born, or understanding any other such cir- 
cumstances, while the words which he employs have no such 
sense as would discover his meaning. "| And Filiutius proves 
that in so speaking one does not even lie, because, says he, 
it is the intention that determines the quality of the action ; 
and one may avoid falsehood, if, after saying aloud, I swear 
that I have not done that, he add in a low voice, to-day ; or, 
after saying aloud, I swear, he interposes in a whisper, that 
I say, and then continue aloud, that I have done that, and 
this is tellino' the truth." 

With mental reservation and probableism, they have sanc- 
tioned all sorts of crimes. The varlet might help his master 
to commit rape or adultery, provided he do not think of the 
sin, but of the profit he may reap from it — so says father 
Bauny. If a servant tliink his salary is not an adequate 
compensation for services, he may help himself to some of 
his master's property to make it equal to his pretensions — so 
teaches the same father. You may kill your enemy for a 
box on the ear, as Escobar asserts in the following words : 
" It is perfectly right to kill a person who has given us a 
box on the ear, although he should run away, provided it is 
not done through hatred or revenge, and there is no danger 
of giving occasion to murders of a gross kind and hurtful to 
society. And the reason is, that it is as lawful to pursue 
the thief that has stolen our honor, as him that has run 
away with our property. For, althougli your honor can not 
be said to be in the hands of your enemy in the same sense 
as your goods and chattels are in the hands of the thief, 
still it may be recovered in the same way — by showing 
proofs of greatness and authority, and thus acquiring the 
esteem of men. And, in point of fact, is it not certain that 

'•■' Thomas Tamburin. Explicatio Decalogi, L. i, c. iii, § 4, N. 15. (Lug- 
duni, 1659. Lugduni, 1665. Ed. Coll. Sion.) 
t Op. Mor. p. 2. 



142 " 8am -/^ OR, THE History of Mystery. 

the man who has received a buffet on the ear is hekl to be 
under disgrace until he has wiped off the insult with the 
blood of his enemy ?" 

In short, you may be a fraudulent bankrupt, thief, assassin, 
profligate, impious atheist even, with a safe conscience, pro- 
vided always you confess to a Jesuit confessor. It is doubt- 
less, in this, that we are to see the efficacy of that miraculous 
gift, which we read at page 13, Loyola had received from 
heaven, and transmitted to his successors — the gift of heal- 
ing troubled consciences ; and this is even boldly asserted by 
themselves. In the Imago primi Soeculi, S. iii, ch. 8, are 
w^ords to this effect: "With the aid of ^ious finesse, and holy 
artifice of devotion, crimes may be expiated now-a-days, alac- 
rius, with more joy and alacrity than they were committed 
in former days; and a great many people may be washed 
from their stains almost as cleverly as they contracted them." 
After this quotation, we need not trouble the reader with any 
more rep-ardino* the doctrine of the Jesuits on social duties. 
We only beg of him, in order that he may well understand 
all the enormity of these doctrines, to look at them from the 
point of view of the Papists, who consider the confessional 
as the only way of salvation, and who blindly obey their 
spiritual fathers, especially if they flatter their passions, and 
promise them paradise as the reward of their vices. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The internal Jesuit — Sam's private opinion of the historical Jesuit, inside 
and out — Corruptions of the Missions — Heathenism out-heathened in 
India. 

But we have seen enougli of the internal Jesuit ; the en- 
tire structure of the incarnated machine, with all its hideous 
enginery of evil, has heen revealed to us ; let us now regard 
him as the external man, historically as holding his place 
among the hrotherhood of mankind. 

That hrotherhood to which he alone has proven himself the 
monstrous recreant ; that hrotherhood against which his fratri- 
cidal malice has perpetually wielded the assassin's weapon 
heneath the assassin's cloak ; that hrotherhood against which 
this Jesuit Judas has hetrayed with the kiss, and for the 
thirty pieces of silver, too ; that hrotherhood, unto the griev- 
ous oppressing of which, he, with the accursed mark of Cain, 
beneath the whitewash on his brow, has ever abetted the ty- 
rant and oppressor, upholding with a sanctimonious unction, 
the bloated arm of massacre, whose carnivals have been St. 
Bartholomew's days ; whose spiritual ecstaticisms have been in 
the debauchment of the consciences of kings and queens, and 
the ravishment of provinces and of nations ; whose darling 
pieties have been death-bed triumphs over dotard superstition ; 
whose chiefest glory is in having been extirpated, as a slow and 
silent fungus from the bosom of every nation of Europe, at 
one time or another ; and then with the indestructible vital- 
ity of evil, to have forced its cancerous roots to sprout again 
through the old cicatrice ; whose greatest honor is to have 
grown fat, and flourished apace, battening upon the juices 
of that offal of ignorance, upon which it has nourished 

(143) 



144 " Sam: ^' or, the History of Mystery. 

mankind, as tlie ant feeds its apliide, that it may live upon 
its milk. 

To be sure, the ant drinks the milk of another insect, yet 
it is of a different race ; but you, amiable Jesuit, have in- 
dulged a cannibal proclivity for the milk of your own. Out- 
heroding Herod, out-vulturing the vulture, ye have preyed 
upon the minds and souls of men. The spiritual carrion on 
which ye gloat, has been a decay within the moral atmo- 
sphere which the exhausting suction of your vampire presence 
has produced ; and ye have gone about among the nations, 
rejoicing in your rags, your lank, cadaverous fingers, with 
their filthy nails resembling most the ghoul that digs at 
charnels. 

And yet, ye, the assassins of kings, the conspirators against 
the peace of nations, familiars of poison, of the " dagger 
and the rope," ye have set up to have been, forsooth, the 
mild conservators of learning, the intelligent disseminators 
of* its luminous rays to the l3enighted regions of paganism. 
Your boast, your vaunt has been, that ye alone have carried 
light into the dark places ; that, under the inspiration of 
your diabolical motto, ad majoram dei ghriam, the arts have 
been protected, letters encouraged, and all the subordinate 
conditions of civilization advanced. " Ad majoram gloriam^^ 
Loyola! and the "Company of Jesus" is the true interpre- 
tation. 

That this is the true meaning of this hideous myth, we 
will take their own authorities, quoting from the origin of 
Jesuit Missions. After the death of Xavier, who was their 
first missionary to India, and who also appears to have been 
the first self-deluded " Knight-errant of an idea," plausible 
and imposing enough in itself, we find that the society re- 
asserts its legitimacy in his successor. 

The man who, after Xavier, had the greatest success in 
India, but who also perverted the character of the mission, 
and introduced the most abominable idolatry, was Father 
Francis Nobili. He arrived in Madura in 1606, and was 
surprised that Christianity had made so little progress in so 
long a time, which he attributed to the strong aversion which 
the Indian had for the European, and to the fact that the 
Jesuits, having addressed themselves more especially to the 
Pariahs, had caused Christ to be considered as the Pariah's 



" Sam : " or, the History oe Mystery. 145 

God.* He therefore resolved to play the part of a Hindoo 
and a Brahmin. After haAdng learned, with wonderful facil- 
ity, their rites, their manners, and their language,! ^^ gave 
himself out as a Saniassi, a Brahmin of the fourth and most 
perfect class ; and with imperturbable impudence, he asserted 
that he had come to restore to them the fourth road to truth, 
which was supposed to have been lost many thousands of 
years before. He submitted to their penances and observ- 
ances, which were very painful ; abstained from everything 
that had life, such as fish, flesh, eggs 4 respected their pre- 
judices, and, above all, the maintenance of the distinction of 
classes. It was forbidden the catechumen Pariah to enter 
the same church with the Sudra or Brahmin converts. 
^_11 this was the beginning of those heathen ceremonies 
and superstitions with which the Christian religion was 
contaminated. 

Great care was taken by these Roman Saniassi that they 
might not be taken for Feringees,§ and still greater care not 
to hurt the prejudices of the Hindoos. We might multiply 
quotations ad infinitum, to prove our assertions, but we shall 
content ourselves with two. " Our whole attention," writes 
Father de Bourges, " is taken up in our endeavor to conceal 
from the people that we are what they call Feringees ; the 
slightest suspicion of this would prove an insurmountable 
obstacle to our success."] | And Father Mauduit writes: 
" The catechist of a low caste can never be employed to 
teach Hindoos of a caste more elevated. The Brahmins and 
the Sudras, who form the principal and most numerous castes, 
have a far greater contempt for the Pariahs, who are be- 
neath them, than princes in Europe can feel for the scum of 
the people. They would be dishonored in their own country, 
and deprived of the privileges of the caste, if ever they lis- 
tened to the instructions of one whom they look upon as 
infamous. We must, therefore, have Pariah catechists for 
the Pariahs, and Brahminical catechists for the Brahmins, 
which causes us a great deal of difficulty. Some time ago, 

'•• Ranke's Hist, of the Popes, vol. ii, p. 231. English translation. 

f Juvencius' Hist. Soc. Jesu, pars v. tome ii, lib. xviii. 

X Lettres Edif,, tome x, p, 324. 

§ Feringe was the name given by the Hindoos to the Portuguese. 

1! Lettres Edif., tome xxi, p. 77. 

13 



146 *sSam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

a catecliist from the Madura mission begged me to go to 
Pouleour, there to baptize some Pariah catechumens, and to 
confess certain neophytes of that caste. The fear that the 
Brahmins and Sudras might come to learn the step I had 
taken, and thence look upon me as infamous, and unworthy 
ever of holding any intercourse with them, hindered me 
from going. The words of the holy apostle Paul, which I 
had read that morning at mass, determined me to take this 
resolution — ' Giving no offense to any one, that your minis- 
try might not be blamed.' (2 Cor. vi, 3.) I therefore made 
these poor people go to a retired place, about three leagues 
from here, where I myself joined them during the night, 
and with the most careful precautions, and there I baptized 
nine."* 

* Lettres Edif., torn, x, pp. 243-245. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Jesuit Oppression — Their Policy in Foreign Missions — Their Beneficence 
toward the primitive Races of America — Death of the Incendiary, Wolf, 
the Jesuit Priest. 

We have here a fair specimen, given in the last chapter, 
of the manner in which the Jesuit missionary has conserved 
and enlightened the barbarous nations of the old world; 
we will now furnish some few examples of his enlightening 
processes in the New World. It seems that unlucky Para- 
guay was the first country set apart for the special ministra- 
tions of this most holy Order. It was deliberately designed 
by their crafty and politic General, Acquiviva, to erect this 
noble country into a Jesuit principality, which was to be a 
sort of penal colony, to which the more worthless lazaroni 
of the Order might be consigned in a kind of "honorable 
exile," as we suppose, as the monks of other orders who had 
accompanied the Conquestadors under the Pizarros, had 
openly instigated them to the perpetration of every conceiv- 
able outrage and cruelty upon the helpless nations, it be- 
came the policy of the cunning Jesuits, in conformity with 
their unvarying course, to compel as strong a contrast as pos- 
sible with their brother monks, by their own conduct toward 
these people ; they therefore became marvelously god-like 
and beneficent in their relations to them, showering them 
with blessings, and with presents on all occasions, until the 
hearts of a simple people were won ; as to the use they made 
of them when won, we shall proceed to relate historically 
concerning the " reductions," as they were called in Para- 
guay, and " Missions," as they were kno'sv^i further north. 

To keep these people in a state of dependence and sub- 
mission, the Jesuits had secluded them from the rest of the 

(147) 



148 " Sam: '' or, the History of Mystery 

world. No individual could leave the Eeduction without per- 
mission, and no European was allowed to visit these Eeduc- 
tions unaccompanied, or to have free intercourse with the 
inhabitants. The knowledge of any other than the native 
language was altogether banished, and aversion and preju- 
dices against the Europeans as carefully cherished as in 
ancient Egypt. 

" Nor were the Eeductions left unprotected against the pos- 
sible attacks of foreign enemies. All able-bodied men were 
drilled to arms, and formed into a militia, having its regu- 
lations, its officers, its arsenal, its artillery, its ammunition. 
The officers were chosen by the soldiers ; the arms and am- 
munition, not excepting the cannon, were manufactured in 
the Eeduction, always by and under the direction of the 
Jesuits. On the afternoon of every Sunday, and other holi- 
days, the militia assembled and executed military exercises 
and evolutions. When that militia was called forth for the 
service of the Spanish king, they had always at their head, 
and among their ranks, Jesuits, who prevented all contact 
with other Indians, or with Europeans, and who answered 
for their virtue before God, as the Indians answered for their 
courage before men."* Nor, indeed, did they fail in their 
duty when an occasion presented itself. Tribes of savages 
often attacked the Eeductions, but were met with undoubted 
courage, and, generally speaking, were repulsed after sus- 
taining severe loss. 

But if, on the one hand, the Jesuits cherished among the 
people distrust and aversion toward strangers, they, on the 
other hand, diligently inculcated the exercise of hospitality 
and friendship among the different Eeductions. On the 
great festival days, and especially on the day of the patron 
saint of any Eeduction, the neighboring ones went thither 
in solemn procession, and were received with all possible 
marks of love and friendship. 

Such is a sketch of the civil government of the Eeduc- 
tions, and of the kind of life led by the inhabitants. Objec- 
tions and reproaches, and perhaps not always unfounded, 
have been raised against such a system. It has been said 
that the inhabitants of the Eeductions were low and abject 



"Cret., vol, iii.p. 312. 



" Sam :" or, the History of Mystery. 149 

slaves, led on by the scourge, deprived even of the faculty 
of thinking, and confined in a perpetual imprisonment, 
though within a large space. Quinet, with perhaps more 
eloquence than reason, exclaims, " Are we sure that it (Par- 
aguay) contains the germ of a great empire ? Where is 
the sign of life? Everywhere else, indeed, one hears at 
least the squalling of the child in the cradle ; here, I fear, 
I confess, that so much silence prevailing in the same place 
for three ages, is but a bad sign, and that the regime which 
can so quietly enervate virgin nature, can not be any other 
than that which develops Guatemozin and Montezuma.'^ All 
this is very well said, and may be in part true. Doubtless 
these people were kept in perpetual infancy. Doubtless 
nothing great, nothing of a creating stamp, must be expected 
from them. Doubtless they did not develop and expand the 
new element of life imparted to them, as other nations have 
done who were more left to themselves ; nor did they exer- 
cise the noblest part of their nature — the intelligence — in 
that pursuit for which we think man was created — the search 
after truth. But surely there are nations who have been 
placed in worse circumstances, and subjected to more disas- 
trous influences, and more deserving our pity and commise- 
ration. Thus, if a nation that has, through the free exercise 
of all its faculties and activities, arrived at a high state of 
civilization and refinement, should be at once crushed, as 
France is at the present moment, under the iron hand of des- 
potism, that people would be really miserable, and such 
doleful lamentations as those of the eloquent ex-professor of 
the College of France would not in this case be misplaced. 
But these Americans, who knew nothing of the pleasures 
of moral and intellectual refinement but what was presented 
to them by their instructors, and found therein contentment, 
we do not know how far they deserve to be pitied. Were 
these people, we ask in our turn, less happy or more miser- 
able than those tens of thousands who wallow in vices of all 
sorts, in the free and civilized towns of Paris and London ? 
Are, then, squalid poverty, the groans of the oppressed and 
reckless sensuality, necessary elements of national happi- 
ness ? These are questions which, in our opinion, deserve 
some consideration ; and although we think the human race 
has been destined by the Creator to greater and nobler 



150 "Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

purposes than the mere enjoyment of a material life, and 
although we know that humanity must progress in its career, 
and that this progress can not be attained without great 
commotion and great evil, nevertheless, when we contemplate 
all the miseries which surround our state of civilization, we 
freely forgive the Jesuits for having, in one part of the globe, 
let civilization and progress sleep awhile, to render these 
poor Indians happy. But with all this merciful ratiocination, 
civilization did sleep in Paraguay as well as all other countries 
into which the benignities of Jesuitism have extended. 

Better founded are the charges brought by the pious and 
zealous against the Jesuits, with respect to the kind of re- 
ligion they taught to their neophytes. In fact, though we 
can not trace any such permanent system of gross idolatry 
as was practiced by the order in the East Indies, neverthe- 
less, it is an undeniable fact, that what was taught by them 
under the name of the pure religion of Christ, was little else 
than a series of empty forms and superstitious observances, 
and that the worship which was rendered to God, was little 
better than a continual and motley masquerade, if we may 
be allowed the expression. We shall not enter into details ; 
the following passage from Cretineau, sufficiently showing what 
sort of Christians, if they can be called so at all, were those 
converted by the Jesuits. " Those Indians had a very lim- 
ited intelligence ; they only understood what fell under their 
senses, and the missionaries were so alarmed at their stupid- 
ity, that they asked themselves whether it was possible to 
admit them to the participation of the sacraments. They 
consulted upon this point the bishops of Peru, assembled at 
Lima, who came to the decision that, baptism excepted, no 
act of Christian devotion should be imposed upon them, without 
infinite precautions.'' "^^ It is true, that the panegyrist of the 
Order adds, " that the patience of the Jesuits was not dis- 
couraged for all this, and that they endeavored to render 
them better Christians, and, we even believe, if the man who 
fulfilled all the imposed external ceremonies may be called a 
Christian, that they succeeded in their attempt." 

However, it seems that the Jesuits had so completely per- 
verted the true spirit of the Christian religion, that even Eo- 
man Catholic bishops, who, as every one knows, are not very 

'" Cret., vol. iii, p. o02. 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 151 

scrupulous in these matters, Avere shocked and indignant at their 
conduct, and made an attempt to put a stop to it. Bernardin 
of Cardenas, Bishop of Paraguay, and John Palafox, Bishop 
of Angelopolis, were the most prominent in their efforts to 
put a stop to the Jesuitical superstitions, but both were un- 
successful; both were worsted in the contest; both were 
obliged to wander as poor exiles out of their dioceses ; and 
both were at last compelled to give up their bishoprics. 

This is the extenuating story of him whom we have char- 
acterized as the most "magnanimous" of the foes of Jesuit- 
ism — M. Nicolini ; but, although he, as the historian of the 
Order, may feel himself called upon to express, in formal 
terms, every conceivable palliation of a story where all seems 
mortally oblique, yet we, the historian of Sam, do not feel 
ourself under any such " Knightly ban ; " because, in the 
first place, the foe is not a knightly one — dirty finger-nails 
and carcasses not constituting honorable rivals in any intel- 
lectual contest. 

But, says this historian, hear what others, who are no con- 
troversialists, who have no other interest in the subject than 
to relate plain incidents ; and it is thus we begin to hear the 
Hebraic motto : "By their fruits shall ye know them !" We 
quote first from Commissioner Bartlett^s Personal Narrative. 

" Although San Franciscos are as common in Mexico as 
Washingtons, Jeffersons, and Franklins are with us, and 
churches dedicated to that Saint are to be found all over the 
country, yet this of La Magdalena is the most celebrated and 
potent of all, inasmuch as it contains a celebrated figure of 
San Francisco, which, among other miracles, performed that 
of selecting the place of its abode. A party of San Francis- 
cans, as the legend goes, were traveling in search of a proper 
spot to found an establishment, and had among their other 
effects, this sainted figure packed upon a mule. On arriving 
at this place, the animal carrying the precious burden became 
obstinate, and refused to budge. This, the worthy fathers 
interpreted as indicating the Saint's pleasure to stop here ; 
so here they built the church. The original building, with 
the exception of the tower, is in ruins ; but a new one has 
been erected within a few years, which is quite an imposing 
edifice, with two fine towers and a large dome, beneath which 
the Saint reposes. 



152 " Sam :'' or, the History of Mystery. 

" For several days previous to the 4tli of October, wliicli 
is the Saint's day, preparations for its celebration begin, so 
that the devotions and offerings, with their accompanying 
festivities, are in full blast a day or two in advance. La 
Mao;dalena and the church of San Francisco are the Mecca 
of devout Mexican Catholics. 

" From the borders of Sinalao on the South, to the furthest 
outpost near the Gila, and from the Gulf of California to 
the Sierra Madre, they flock in by thousands to offer their 
devotions at this shrine. It is not unusual for very great 
sinners to bring their burden of guilt a distance of four or 
five hundred miles ; a journey, in this country, of greater 
difficulty and requiring more time than one from New 
Orleans to Quebec. The poorer classes often come a hundred 
miles on foot, begging by the way. The more penitent, 
like the idolaters before the temple of Juggernaut, or the 
devout Mohammedan at the shrine of his prophet, prostrate 
themselves, and with their hands crossed on their breasts, 
advance on their knees a hundred feet or more to the church. 
Both men and women are thus seen toiling over the dusty 
street and brick pavement of the church to the presence of 
the Saint, who is laid out beneath the dome and in front of 
the altar. When the votaries reach the bier they cross them- 
selves, and with outstretched arms repeat their prayers ; they 
then rise to their feet, and, drawing nearer, present their 
offerings. 

" The body of San Francisco, or rather its image, lies upon 
a platform or bier, clothed in rich vestments, and covered 
wdth a piece of damask of the most gorgeous colors. The 
head, hands and feet are alone exposed. These are made 
of wood, colored to represent flesh ; and I was informed by a 
Mexican gentleman that these constituted the whole statue. 
The body, he told me, was merely a frame-work, stuffed with 
rags and cloths, to give it a form, over which the drapery 
was disposed. The offerings consist of money and candles ; 
and as wax is quite expensive here, the poorer classes present 
candles of tallow. There was a continual jingling of money ; 
in fact, so constant was the dropping of silver dollars into 
the receptacle placed for them, that no other sound was heard. 
What was singular in all this mummery was, that no priest 
was present. The men who took the money were ordinarily 



" Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 153 

dressed, having on nothing to distinguish them from the 
crowd around. There may have been a priest behind the 
altar, or somewhere not visible to the devotees ; but while I 
stood by the side of the image and witnessed the proceeding 
on two occasions, I could perceive none. An estimate may 
be formed of the crowds here present, when I state that the 
receipts this year, although the attendance was less than 
usual, were about twelve thousand dollars, while on some 
former occasions, the amount of money voluntarily given 
had reached the sum of eighteen thousand. To the question 
wliat became of all this money, I received the usual reply 
of ' Quien saheP A gentleman, however, told me that it 
went to the City of Mexico, and that neither the poor of 
Magdalena nor the church there derived any benefit from it." 

The fat priests of Mexico can tell you what becomes of 
the proceeds of these rich plantations — into the coffers of 
the Vatican every copper of this plunder, wrung from ignor- 
ance and ignominy, goes — on it, the tonsiled leeches of the 
church which preaches ignorance to the masses, prey. 

" In the evening I visited the church again, when I wit- 
nessed the ceremony of consecrating ribbons. The space 
around the image was crowded, as in the morning, with dev- 
otees, ea^h provided with a piece of ribbon. The mode of 
consecrating it depended upon the ailment of the applicant. 
If he or she had a pain in the head, the ribbon was passed 
several times across the forehead of the figure by the ofiici- 
ating Franciscans. If blind, the ribbon was passed across 
the eyes ; if lame, or afflicted with rheumatism, it was passed 
across the arms or legs ; and in many instances I saw it 
drawn between the toes of the saint. Had some of our tur- 
tle-fed aldermen been the applicants for the latter process, 
one might have believed it to have been for the gout ; but I 
fancy that a diet of frijoles and tortillas does not often 
engender that disease in Mexico. Some of the worshipers 
were provided with long pieces of ribbon, which they applied 
in turn to every part, a knot being tied after each applica- 
tion, making, probably, as one of the gentlemen observed, 
' a sort of family medicine chest.' The faith of the people 
in this thing of wood and paint is astonishing. An old man 
told us with the utmost seriousness, that last May, when the 
cholera visited the place, and was cutting off twenty a day, 



154 "Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

they had only to bring the image into the street, and the 
disease at once disappeared. He was asked what he would 
have thought if the disease had continued. He replied that 
' it was the will of the saint, and we must submit.' 

" In our rambles, we dropped into an attractive-looking 
shop, to make inquiries about such provisions as we required. 
The proprietor, Senor Gonzales, was a native Castilian, which 
we soon perceived by the purity of his language. He at once 
recognized us as Americans, and after answering our inquiries, 
invited us into an inner apartment, furnished very handsome- 
ly, and in good taste. One of the first things I noticed here, 
was an American rocking-chair — an article of luxury better 
adapted, one would suppose, to the quiet habits of the Mexi- 
cans, with their fondness for a siesta during the heat of the 
day, than to those of restless Yankees. Wine and other 
refreshments were offered us, and an hour was agreeably 
spent in conversation with our new acquaintance. He gave 
us much information about the country, and the ceremonies 
we had just witnessed. While there, several strangers, also 
gentlemen of education and respectability, came in ; and 
finding who we were, and of what we were in pursuit, they 
gave us such information as we required, and tendered us 
their services. 

u I regretted to learn we could not procure the provisions 
we needed, but it was expected that the fair would bring 
many mules into market, so that in a few days we could 
obtain all that we wanted. 

" In the evening we walked about the town and among the 
booths, which were arranged on every side of the plaza and 
along the principal streets. They seemed much like those 
which it was customary to erect in New York on the fourth 
of July. Cakes of various kinds, tortillas, fruits, and 
aguardiente, were the staple articles ; but while there were 
booths entirely appropriated to the sale of this intoxicating 
liquor, I do not remember to have seen a single drunken 
man. In the midst of these booths was a large inclosure, 
covered with the boughs of trees, beneath which some hun- 
dreds were assembled, and engaged in dancing. An enormous 
bass drum, which was heard above all other sounds, a couple 
of violins, and a clarionet, ground out waltzes and polkas, 
while the beaux were swinging round the senoritas in a 



" Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 155 

manner that would astonisli our dancing community. Not- 
withstanding the crowd here assembled, most of whom were 
strangers to each other, the most perfect order was kept. 
The Mexican people are ardently devoted to dancing ; and 
when they once enter into it, tliey do not cease until the sun 
appears the following day. Some of our party who were given 
to this amusement, thought they would like to take a few 
turns, so casting a glance along the line of dark-eyed dam- 
sels who occupied the benches, and selecting the most attract- 
ive, they advanced without any introduction, led them into 
the arena, and at once joined in the merry whirl. A per- 
petual fandango w^as thus kept up day and night, where 
people of all sorts, sizes, and conditions might be seen twirl- 
ing to the slow measure of the Spanish reel, or the more 
active waltz and polka. But gambling, after all, seemed to 
predominate. Whole ranges of booths were devoted to this 
exciting amusement ; and crowds of every age, sex, and class 
were assembled about them. Boys and girls of six and eight 
years of age laid down their coppers, and men their reals and 
dollars, while at other tables the more wealthy and aristo- 
cratic ventured their ounces. Some of the tables were 
attended by women, selected, not on account of their personal 
beauty, but for their expertness in shuffling the cards. 

" We accompanied Mr. Pratt to the hills opposite our camp 
to take some sketches. The hills were separated from the 
camp by the river, on the banks of which were some hun- 
dreds of men and women bathing or washing. A few cotton- 
wood trees grew along the valley, and the margin of the 
stream was lined with willow bushes. The hills here are 
about five hundred feet high, and from them we had a fine 
view of the town and the adjacent plain, which was inclosed, 
toward the south, by a high range of mountains. The hill 
was literally covered with cacti of every variety that we had 
seen, from tiny plants not longer than one^s thumb, just pro- 
jecting from some crevice, to the giant cereus, that shot up 
to the hight of fifty feet. The agave, yucca, fouquiera, 
Spanish bayonet, mezquit, and other plants, alike grew in 
profusion around us. 

" In the evening we again visited the church, where the 
same scenes were going on as before described. It was now 
brilliantly illuminated, and a procession was marching 



15G " Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

through the crowd, each individual in it holding a lighted 
candle in his hand. The music was performed by a circus 
band from Hermosilla, which played the same pieces for the 
interludes of the service as it did for the performances of the 
evening. Some of our popular Ethiopian melodies occasion- 
ally greeted the ear." 

These precious scenes are not merely characteristic of a 
locality ; they constitute the ruU, without exception, of Jesuit 
ascendency in the New World. The thousand hoary ruins of 
their Missions, from Cape Horn to the Sabine, tell the same 
story of sneaking oppression. 

Hear again another story, from the same source, of the 
fate of a Mission. 

" Situated in the midst of a fertile valley, surrounded with 
abundant timber and supplied by a thousand springs, with 
an inexhaustible flow of water, the Mission of San Gabriel 
flourished and became exceedingly rich. Authentic records 
are said to exist, which show that at one time the Mission 
branded fifty thousand calves, manufactured three thousand 
barrels of wine, and harvested one hundred thousand fanegas 
(two hundred and sixty-two thousand bushels) of grain a year. 
The timber for a brigantine was cut, sawed, and fitted at the 
Mission, and then transported to and launched at San Pedro. 
Five thousand Indians were at one time collected and attached 
to the Mission. They are represented to have been sober 
and industrious, well clothed and fed, and seem to have expe- 
rienced as high a state of happiness as they are adapted by 
nature to receive." 

But what, in the meantime, has become of those *' two 
hundred and sixty-two thousand bushels " of grain a year ? 
Of course they went into the treasury of the " Society," which 
thus fanned its loafers upon the credulity of primitive races. 

But, with all the cloud of worldly cant with which the his- 
torians of New England love to involve this question of toler- 
ance, the following story furnishes the most apt commentary 
upon the beneficent influence of the Jesuits upon our early 
history : 

" Finding the incursions of the Indians likely to continue, 
through the machinations of the Jesuit Eolle, the government 
of Massachusetts resolved to carry an expedition to Norridge- 
wock, for the purpose of destroying the place and seizing the 



'* Sam : " or, the History of Mystery 157 

instigator of tlie war. Two hundred and eight men were put 
under the command of Captains Harman and Moulton, and 
provided with whale-boats to proceed up the Kennebeck. 
Leaving Fort Eichmond the eighth of August, they arrived at 
Taconick, the next day, where they left their boats under a 
guard of a lieutenant and forty men ; the next day they com- 
menced their march for Norridgewock, and in the evening 
captured the wife and daughter of Bomazeen, a well known 
chief, from whom they obtained exact knowledge of the state 
and position of the village. On the twelfth they approached 
the place ; Harman, with a part of the force, took a route by 
the Indian cornfields, where it was supposed a part of the 
enemy would be found, while Moulton, with the remainder, 
continued on the direct route. About three o'clock in the 
afternoon, the latter came suddenly in view of the village, 
and found the Indians quiet in their cabins. Moulton then 
ordered his men to approach, as silently as possible, and make 
a close attack. An Indian, at this time, coming out of his 
cabin, discovered the English and gave the alarm, on which 
sixty warriors instantly turned out, and advanced to the 
attack, while the old men, women and children fled. Moul- 
ton reserved his fire until the Indians gave theirs, which 
proved harmless, most of the shot passing over the heads of 
the English ; he then poured in his fire, which made unusual 
slaughter. The enemy then gave a second shot, and many 
fled toward the river, closely pursued by the English ; some 
leaping into canoes without paddles, others took to the water 
and attempted to swim or wade over. i\.s the river was nar- 
row and of little depth, some efl'ected their escape into the 
woods on the opposite side ; but the greatest proportion were 
cut down by the English fire. Moulton then returned to the 
village, where the Jesuit EoUe was firing from his cabin upon 
a party of his men, who had previously arrived. Orders were 
given to seize Rolle, if possible, alive, but his resistance ren- 
dered this difiicult. Lieutenant Jaques stove in the door, and 
finding him resolutely re-charging his gun for another shot 
and refusing to ask for quarter, sent a ball through his head. 
The old veteran Mog, attempting to defend himself in another 
cabin, was shot down with several others, and some were made 
prisoners. Having cleared the village of the enemy, it was 



158 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

plundered of all tliat was valuable, the plate, furniture of the 
chapel, and the devotional flag hoisted over it, not excepted. 
At night Moulton encamped in the place, and Harman, hav- 
ing completed his detour without meeting the enemy, joined 
him. 

The next morning twenty-six dead bodies of the enemy, 
beside that of EoUe, were found ; among which were Boma- 
zeen, Mog, Job, Carabesset, Wisememet, and Bomazeen's 
son-in-law, all noted warriors ; in the whole, eighty are said 
to have fallen. The villao-e was set on fire, and the English 
returned to Taconick, and joined the guard left at that place ; 
and proceeding down the river, they arrived at Eichmond 
fort on the sixteenth of August, with a small loss. The scalps 
taken from the dead were conveyed to Boston. This severe 
blow proved the ruin of the Norridgewock tribe, and very 
much disheartened the remaining hostile Indians. 

" The Jesuit Eolle had been a very active agent in, if not 
the principal cause of the war, and his death was considered 
as a very auspicious event by the English ; it must be 
acknowledged, however, that he was a loss to the literary 
world. Previous to his residence at Norridgewock, he had 
spent six years in traveling among the various tribes in the 
interior of America, and he had learned most of their lan- 
guages. He was nearly forty years a missionary, twenty-six 
of which he had spent at Norridgewock among the Indians ; 
and with their manners and customs he had become intimately 
acquainted. His letters on various subjects evince that he 
was a man of superior natural powers, which had been im- 
proved by an education in a college of Jesuits in Europe. 
With the learned languages he was thoroughly acquainted, 
and by his assiduity he had taught many of his converts to 
write and read, and to correspond with him in their own lan- 
guage. With the principal clergymen of Boston he held a 
correspondence in Latin, possessed great skill in controversy, 
and made some attempts at Indian poetry. Pride was his 
foible ; he took great pleasure in raillery, made the offices of 
devotion incentives to Indian ferocity, and even kept a flag 
on which was depicted a cross, surrounded by bows and arrows, 
which he used to hoist on a pole at the door of his church, 
when he gave the Indians absolution, previous to their 



*'Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 159 

engaging in any enterprise. A dictionary of the Norridgewock 
language, composed by him, was found among his papers, 
which is now deposited in the library of Harvard College. 
It is a quarto volume of about five hundred pages. Kolle 
was in the 67th year of his age when he was killed." - 



** Hutchinson's Massachusetts, vol. ii. — Holmes' Annals, vol. ii. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The deadly war of the Jesuits against Protestantism continued in the New 
World — Cant of Bancroft the Historian — Illustrations — Martyrdom ? — 
Facts and Motives of Jesuit Missions — League of the Iroquois — Intrigues 
of the Jesuits — First Intercolonial War — Predominance of Jesuit Insti 
gation. 

But the Jesuit Wolf was not the only arch instigator of 
the Border Wars and their attendant massacres and burnings 
belonging to his Order. These indefatigable and bloody foes 
of Protestantism in all its shades and forms — not content with 
the slauo'hter of the Albi^enses and Waldenses — the St. Bar- 
tholomew days — the reeking battlefields, the plundered 
provinces and sacked cities, with which their ferocious coun- 
cils and insidious intrigues had devastated the old world — no 
sooner learn that some feeble remnants of their purposed 
victims have fled for refuge to the savage wilderness of the 
New World than, in pursuance of that deadly vow of exter- 
mination which was the basis of Jesuit organization, they 
follow them hither, and at once renew the fatal strife. 

With the crafty humility which has ever characterized 

their initial proceedings, they came at first the single, lowly 

enthusiast of the cross, and then in little squads of twos and 

threes, with scrip and staff — the mock heralds of the Prince 

of Peace — the mild and patient bearers of " glad tidings " 

to the benighted red-man. But it is impossible for the 

feeble pen of the historian of '' Sam '' to do justice to the 

immaculate virtues of this heroic and self-denying Order. 

Hear, rather, the words of one whose lips have evidently been 

touched with " Holy fire," and flame forth in words meet to 

celebrate such transfigurations of the Divine in the human, 

as these Jesuit missionaries appear to him — even the Nestor 

of Yankee historians, George Bancroft ! He alone may 

speak fittingly of such a theme, with that poetical eflulgence 

of diction which, in its resonant raptures, has fairly cowed the 
(160) 



'' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 161 

sober seeming of the grave historic muse with the stately 
tiim turn of Homeric measures wherever he touches this topic. 
Behold, then, the Jesuits Brebeuf and Daniel, soon to be 
followed by the gentler Lallemand, and many others of their 
order, bowing meekly in obedience to their vows, and joining 
a party of barefoot Hurons, who were returning from Quebec 
to their country. The journey, by way of the Ottawa and 
the rivers that interlock with it, was one of more than three 
hundred leagues, through a region horrible with forests. 
All day long, the missionaries must wade, or handle the oar. 
At night, there is no food for them but a scanty measure of 
Indian corn mixed with water ; their couch is the earth or 
the rocks. At five and thirty waterfalls, the canoe is to be 
carried on the shoulders for leagues through thickest woods, 
or over roughest regions ; fifty times it vras dragged by hand 
through shallows and rapids, over sharpest stones ; and thus, 
swimming, wading, paddling, or bearing the canoe across the 
portages, with garments torn, with feet mangled, yet with the 
breviary safely hung round the neck, and vows, as they ad- 
vanced, to meet death twenty times over, if it were possible, 
for the honor of St. Joseph, the consecrated envoys made their 
way, by rivers, lakes and forests, from Quebec to the heart of the 
Huron wilderness. There, to the north-west of Lake Toronto, 
near the shore of Lake Iroquois, which is but a bay of Lake 
Huron, they raised the first humble house of the Society of 
Jesus among the Hurons — the cradle, it was said, of his 
church who dwelt at Bethlehem in a cottage. (1634.) The 
little chapel, built by the aid of the ax, and consecrated 
to St. Joseph, where, in the gaze of thronging crowds, ves- 
pers and matins began to be chanted, and the sacred bread 
was consecrated by solemn mass, amazed the hereditary 
guardians of the council-fires of the Huron tribes. Beautiful 
testimony to the equality of the human race ! the sacred 
wafer, emblem of the divinity in man, all that the church 
offered to the princes and nobles of the European world, was 
shared with the humblest of the savage neophytes. The 
hunter, as he returned from his wide roamino-s, was tauo^ht 
to hope for eternal rest*; the braves, as they came from war, 
were warned of the wrath which kindles against sinners a 
never-dying fire, fiercer far than the fires of the Mohawks ; 
the idlers of the Lidian villages were told the exciting tale 
14 



162 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

of tlie Savior's death for tlieir redemption. Two new Christian 
villages, St. Louis and St. Ignatius, bloomed among the 
Huron forests. The dormant sentiment of pious veneration 
was awakened in many breasts, and there came to be even 
earnest and ascetic devotees uttering prayers and vows in the 
Huron tongue — ^T\diile tawny skeptics inquired, if there were 
indeed, in the center of the earth, eternal flames for the 
unbelieving. 

The missionaries themselves possessed the weaknesses and 
the ^drtues of their Order. For fifteen years enduring the 
infinite labors and perils of the Huron mission, and exhibiting, 
as it was said, " an absolute pattern of every religious virtue," 
Jean de Brebeuf, respecting even the nod of his distant 
Superiors, bowed his mind and his judgment to obedience. 
Beside the assiduous fatigues of his office, each day, and 
sometimes twice in the day, he applied to himself the lash ; 
beneath a bristling hair shirt he wore an iron girdle, armed 
on all sides with projecting points ; his fasts were frequent; 
almost always his pious vigils continued deep into the night. 
In vain did Asmodeus assume for him the forms of earthly 
beauty ; his eye rested benign antly on visions of divine 
things. Once, imparadised in a trance, he beheld the Mother 
of Him whose cross he bore, surrounded by a crowd of vir- 
gins, in the beatitudes of heaven. (1640.) Once, as he 
himself has recorded, while engaged in penance, he saw 
Christ unfold his arms to embrace him with the utmost love, 
promising oblivion of his sins. Once, late at night, while 
praying in the silence, he had a vision of an infinite number 
of crosses, and, with mighty heart, he strove, again and 
again, to grasp them all. Often he saw the shapes of foul 
fiends, now appearing as madmen, now as raging beasts ; and 
often he beheld the image of death, a bloodless form, by the 
side of the stake, struggling with bonds, and, at last, falling, 
as a harmless specter, at his feet. Having vowed to seek out 
suffering for the greater glory of God, he renewed that vow 
every day, at the moment of tasting the sacred wafer ; and, 
as his cupidity for martyrdom grew into a passion, he ex- 
claimed, " What shall I render to thee, Jesus, my Lord, for 
all thy benefits? I will accept thy cup, and invoke thy 
name ;" and, in sight of the Eternal Father and the Holy 
Spirit, of the most holy Mother of Christ, and St. Josepli. 



" Sam : ^' or, the History or Mystery. 16 



Q 



before angels, apostles, and martyrs, before St. Ignatius and 
Francis Xavier, he made a vow never to decline the opportu- 
nity of martyrdom, and never to receive the death-blow but 
with joy. (1G38.) 

The life of a missionary on Lake Huron was simple and 
uniform. The earliest hours, from four to eight were ab- 
sorbed in private prayer ; the day was given to schools, visits, 
instruction in the catechism, and a service for proselytes. 
Sometimes, after the manner of St. Francis Xavier, Brebeuf 
would walk through the village and its environs, ringing a 
little bell, and inviting the Huron braves and counselors to a 
conference. There, under the shady forest, the most solemn 
mysteries of the Catholic faith were subjected to discussion. 
It was by such means that the sentiment of piety was un- 
folded in the breast of the great warrior Ahasistari. Nature 
had planted in his mind the seeds of religious faith : " Be- 
fore you came to this country," he would say, " when I have 
incurred the greatest perils, and have alone escaped, I have 
said to myself, ' Some powerful spirit has the guardianship 
of my days ;' " and he professed his belief in Jesus, as the 
good genius and protector, whom he had before unconsciously 
adored. After trials of his sincerity, he was baptized ; and, 
enlisting a troop of converts, savages like himself, ''Let us 
strive," he exclaimed, "to make the whole world embrace 
the faith in Jesus." 

But this is too good to be all. Our quondam historian 
who, as may be seen from his account of Jean de Brebeuf, 
has studied the ecstaticism of Jesuit narrative with an ear- 
nestness strongly savoring of a conviction in faith, gives us 
another precious morceau from the same reliable source, 
which exhibits his huge relish for such spicy viands. 

The Jesuits are determined to push a Mission into the 
country of the unwilling Mohawk. 

"Each sedentary Mission was a special point of attraction 
to the invader, and each, therefore, was liable to the horrors 
of an Indian massacre. Such was the fate of the village of 
St. Joseph. On the morning of July 4, 1648, when the 
braves were absent on the chase, and none but women, child- 
ren, and old men, remained at home. Father Anthony Dan- 
iel hears the cry of danger and confusion. He flies to the 
scene to behold his converts, in the apathy of terror, falling 



164 " Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

victims to the fury of Mohawks. No age, however tender, 
excites mercy; no feebleness of sex wins compassion. A 
group of women and children fly to him to escape the toma- 
hawk — as if his lips, uttering messages of love, could pro- 
nounce a spell that would curb the madness of destruction. 
Those who had formerly scoflted his mission, implore the ben- 
elit of baptism. He bids them ask forgiveness of God, and, 
dipping his handkerchief in water, baptizes the crowd of 
suppliants by aspersion. Just then, the palisades are forced. 
Should he fly ? He first ran to the wigwams to baptize the 
sick ; he next pronounced a general absolution on all who 
sought it, and then prepared to resign his life as a sacrifice 
to his vows. (1648.) The wigwams are set on fire; the 
Mohawks approach the chapel, and the consecrated envoy 
serenely advances to meet them. Astonishment seized the 
barbarians. At length, drawing near, they discharge at him 
a flight of arrows. All gashed and rent by w^ounds, he still 
continued to speak with surprising energy — now inspiring 
fear of the divine anger, and again, in gentle tones, yet of 
more piercing power than the whoops of the savages, breath- 
ing the affectionate messages of mercy and grace. Such 
w^ere his actions till he received a death-blow from a halbert. 
The victim to the heroism of charity died, the name of Jesus 
on his lips ; the wilderness gave him a grave ; the Huron 
nation were his mourners. By his religious associates it was 
believed that he appeared twice after his death, youthfully 
radiant in the sweetest form of celestial glory ; that, as the 
reward for his torments, a crowd of souls, redeemed from 
purgatory, were his honoring escort into heaven." 

One more glimpse of these poetic pictures, and we shall 
turn to common sense. The prevalence of peace now favored 
the advance of the French, or rather Jesuit, dominion. 

" For the succeeding years, the illustrious triumvirate, 
Alloiiez, Dablon, and Marquette, were employed in confirming 
the influence of France in the vast regions that extend from 
Green Bay to the head of Lake Superior — mingling happi- 
ness with suffering, and winning enduring glory by their fear- 
less perseverance. For to what inclemencies, from nature and 
from man, was each missionary among the barbarians exposed ! 
He defies the severity of climate, wading through water or 
through snows, without the comfort of fire ; having no bread 



"Sam:" or the History op Mystery. 165 

but pounded maize, and often no food but the unwholesome moss 
from the rocks ; laboring incessantly ; exposed to live, as it 
were, without nourishment, to sleep without a resting-place, 
to travel far, and always incurring perils — to carry his life 
in his hand, or rather daily, and oftener than every day, to 
hold it up as a target, expecting captivity, death from the 
tomahawk, tortures, fire. And yet the simplicity and the 
freedom of life in the wilderness had their charms. The 
heart of the missionary would swell with delight, as, under 
a serene sky, and with a mild temperature, and breathing a 
pure air, he moved over waters as transparent as the most 
limpid fountain. Every encampment offered his attendants 
the pleasures of the chase. Like a patriarch, he dwelt be- 
neath a tent ; and of the land through which he walked, he 
was its master, in the length of it and in the breadth of it, 
profiting by its productions, without the embarrassment of 
ownership. How often was the pillow of stones like that 
where Jacob felt the presence of God ! How often did the 
ancient oak, of which the centuries were untold, seem like 
the tree of Mamre, beneath which Abraham broke bread 
with angels ! Each day gave the pilgrim a new site for his 
dwellino' which the industry of a few moments would erect, 
and for which nature provided a floor of greeu, inlaid with 
flowers. On every side clustered beauties, which art had not 
spoiled, and could not imitate.'^ 

Now, apart from all this sky-rocketing of words, the plain 
historical truth concerning these so much vaunted missionary 
movements of the Jesuits, is clearly about this. Their 
si 'utli-hound vengeance crossed the sea upon the track of 
that Protestantism which they had, as an Order, sworn to 
exterminate. Next to this vow, the aggrandizement of the 
Order, "to the greater glory of" — Loyola, was the next 
most vital consideration, and, in America, they only pursued 
the same policy in reference to this particular end which had 
characterized their operations in India, China, Japan, Para- 
guay, California, and elsewhere ; their object being, clearly, 
in the formation of Missions, to create so many fiefs of the 
Order, the revenues of which would enure to the swelling 
its treasury. 

In North America, beside the tithes, which being paid in 



166 " Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

the ricli furs of the country, were by no means inconsider- 
able, the Missions established would answer the double 
purpose of revenue and revenge ; since uniformly cul- 
tivating in the hearts of their converts the most implac- 
able enmity againt Protestantism, the Order were enabled at 
any time, to harass and devastate the hated settlements. 
And, ao^ain, havino; as an Order been several times banished 
from France, as well as from every other government of 
Europe as enemies to internal peace, they felt it necessary 
to purchase toleration by the splendor of their discoveries in 
pushing exploration so far ahead of settlement. Nor did all 
these combined, constitute the yet most important considera- 
tion to the ambitious Jesuit. 

They early perceived, with that sure intelligence of fore- 
sight which ]ias uniformly marked their operations, the 
future glory and grandeur of this New World, and they 
determined to establish for themselves here, a Theocratic 
empire, which would be to the Order — amidst the convulsions 
which their intrigues continued to cause in Europe — as a 
House of Refuge to which they might, as a last resort, fly for 
safety, and hold as a ^;omi d 'appiii, from which they might 
renew the contest. 

See how clearly they have apprehended the importance of 
the New Hemisphere in this light. Paraguay, indeed the 
whole of South America, and Mexico on the south, Cali- 
fornia on the west, New France, or Canada on the north, all 
occupied by the proposed Theocracy — thus hemming in the 
beleaguered Protestants on tliree sides. What South Amer- 
ica, Mexico and California have been — and the two first yet 
remaining so — virtual Theocracies — that is, governments in 
which the priesthood standing as the representatives of God, 
are alone accountable to Him for both the spiritual and tem- 
poral of their subject — or in other words, constitute the 
supreme governing power in the State — no one will at this 
day pretend to deny. That New France or Canada, was also 
ruled into a strict Theocracy by the Jesuits, is clearly sus- 
ceptible of proof, throughout the entire cotemporary history 
of that period. La Hontan, an intelligent traveler, natu- 
ralist and cosmopolite — twenty years after New France had 
been established a bishopric through the enterprise of the 



"Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 167 

Jesuits — complains grievously of this priestly despotism, and 
after the remark, " that at Montreal it was a perpetual Lent," 
continues : 

We have here a misanthropical higot of a cure, under 
whose spiritual despotism, play and visiting the ladies are 
reckoned among the mortal sins. If you have the misfor- 
tune to be on his black list, he launches at you publicly, from 
the pulpit, a bloody censure. As Messieurs, the priests of St. 
Sulpice, are our temporal lords, they take the greater liberty 
to tyrannize over us. To keep well with them, it is neces- 
sary to communicate once a month. These Arguses have 
their eyes constantly on the conduct of the women and the 
girls. Fathers and husbands may sleep in all assurance, 
unless they have some suspicions as to these vigilant sentinels 
themselves. Of all the vexation of those disturbers, I found 
none so intolerable as their war upon books. None are to be 
found here but books of devotion. All others are prohibited 
and condemned to the flames. Our author winds up with a 
ludicrous account how his Petronius, left by accident on his 
table, was mutilated by a devout priest, who took it upon 
himself to tear out all the best leaves, under pretense that 
they were scandalous. " No one dare to be absent from 
great masses and sermons without special excuse. These are 
the times, however, at which the women take a little liberty, 
beino' sure that their husbands and mothers are at church.'' 

Such is the concurrent testimony of all cotemporary 
writers — amply sustained as it is by the invariable usage 
and determination of Catholic— but more especially Jesuit 
institutions. But were sucli cotemporary evidence wanting 
at a time when the learning of the world was principally in 
the keeping of the catholic priesthood, there yet remains 
the broad and well-established historical fact, that the inter- 
colonial wars between the English and other Protestant col- 
onies on the north, and the Indians and Canadian French, 
were instigated personally by these saintly Jesuit missionaries 
themselves, and that the murderous forays of the Indians 
upon these settlements, were even led by these meek mis- 
sionaries of peace. Indeed, all that saved these northern 
colonies from absolute extermination, was the success of that 
sagacious policy of the early Dutch governors of New 
Amsterdam, in securing the friendship and allegiance of tlie 



168 "Sam:" or, the History op Mystery. 

powerful and warlike Iroquois or Five Nations, establislied in 
tlie north of New York. This alliance also, politically courted 
and nourished by the New England colonies, was for a long 
period successfully maintained; opposing this formidable 
Indian confederacy as a barrier between their weak but grow- 
ing settlements and the exterminating hate of the Jesuits. 
It was during the desperate efforts of these priests to gain a 
foothold among the Iroquois for their Missions, with a view 
to breaking up this — for them — unlucky league, by their 
intrigues, that all those bloody scenes occurred, which we have 
seen so elaborately celebrated in the Elegiac prose of the 
sympathizing historian, Bancroft. A choice subject for the 
lugubrious monodies of an American historian surely ! Had 
the Jesuits, whose fate is thus deplored, succeeded earlier — 
as they did finally to some extent — in their scheme of dis- 
ruj)turing this alliance, and turned loose upon the weak set- 
tlements of the Protestant colonies, the fierce warrior hordes 
of the Five Nations, in addition to those formidable tribes 
which already jdelded to their supremacy, no doubt our ten- 
der-hearted historian would have had ample inspiration for 
the change of his Elegiacs into Idyls, or found full employ- 
ment in sounding the Te Deum to Loyola ! Terribly as the 
colonies suffered as it was — with the Iroquois sometimes allies 
but most frequently neutral — there can be no question of the 
entire subjugation, if not annihilation of the Protestant 
colonies of the north, had such an event as this disruption 
taken place. Hildreth says : 

Whatever the success of the French missionaries among 
the more northern and western tribes, they encountered in 
the Iroquois, or Five Nations, firm and formidable opponents. 
That celebrated confederacy, beside subject tribes, included 
five allied communities : the Senecas, the Cavuo^as, the Onon- 
dagas, the Oneidas, and the Mohawks ; which last, as being 
nearest to their settlements, often gave, among the English, 
a name to the whole. Each of these five nations was divided 
into three clans, distinguished as the Bear, the Tortoise, and 
the Wolf. Their castles, rude forts, places of protection for 
the women, children, and old men, surrounded by fields of 
corn, beans, and squashes, the head-quarters of the several 
tribes, were situated on those waters of central New York, 
of which the nam.es serve as memorials, and now almost tlie 



" Sam:" or the History of Mystery. 169 

only ones, of their ancient possessors. Some slender rem- 
nants of this once-powerful confederacy still linger, however, 
on small reservations of their ancient territory. It was in 
courage, ferocity, and warlike enterprise, far more than in 
social institutions or the arts of peace, that the Iroquois sur- 
passed the tribes of Algonquin descent on their eastern, 
southern, and western borders. It was not against those 
tribes as Algonquin, that the Five Nations carried on war, 
for their hostility was directed with even greater fury against 
the Hurons and Wyandots, who dwelt along the St. Law- 
rence and north of Lake Ontario, and who spoke dialects of 
the same language with themselves. The early alliance of 
French with those tribes, had rendered the French colonists 
objects of implacable hate to the Five Nations. 

In vain, during a short interval of peace, strenuous 
efforts were made to establish a spiritual influence over these 
fierce warriors. Father Jogues, whose captivity had made 
him acquainted with the chiefs, having returned again to 
Canada, was sent among them as embassador and mission- 
ary — a dangerous service, in which he met the death he had 
formerly escaped. 

Supplied with fire-arms by the Dutch, and rendered thus 
more formidable than ever, the Iroquois renewed a war by 
which the missionaries and their converts were equally en- 
dangered. Daniel, the venerable father of the Huron mis- 
sion, perished in the midst of his flock, surprised and massacred 
by a Mohawk war-party. Brebeuf and Lallemand, taken pris- 
oners, were burned at the stake ; Gardier perished by the 
hatchets of the Iroquois ; Chabanel was lost in the woods. 
The Huron missions, by these renewed onslaughts, were 
completely broken up. The Hurons, Wyandots, and Ottawas, 
greatly reduced in numbers, were driven from their country, 
which became a hunting-ground for the Iroquois. Subse- 
quently the Hurons and Ottawas established themselves in 
the neighborhood of Mackinaw. Mohawk w^ar-parties harass- 
ed the banks of the St. Lawrence. The unhappy colonists 
lived in daily dread of massacre. Quebec itself was not safe. 
This emergency caused a message to ask aid of New Eng- 
land, as mentioned in a former chapter, or, at least, a free 
passage for war-parties of the Eastern tribes under French 
influence in their march against the Mohawks — a message 
15 



170 " Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

borne by John Godefroy, one of tbe council of New France, 
and Dreuillettes, former explorer of tbe passage from Que- 
bec to the eastern coast, described in his commission as 
'preacher of the Gospel to savage nations/ But the Com- 
missioners for the United Colonies of New England listened 
with but a cold ear to the story of the martyrdom of the 
French missionaries and the sufferings of their Indian con- 
verts. No aid could be obtained in that quarter ; but, after 
two or three years of perpetual alarm, the Iroquois consented 
at last to a peace. 

From the earliest foothold obtained by the Jesuits among 
the French colonies on the north, they had been known as the 
instigators and fermenters of jealousies between their converts 
and the Puritan settlements of New England and New York. 
With the exception of their unvaryiug system of ' Eeductions' 
— as they are best termed in all countries, and meaning 
nothing more than absolute slavery, spiritually and financially, 
by which the rich proceeds of the free-trade were, in this case, 
to be monopolized into the treasury of the Order — there were 
no purposes in which these missionaries proved themselves so 
indefatigably consistent, as this of mortal enmity to the Prot- 
estants wherever they appeared. Not only was this per- 
petual cause of irritation felt in the savage carnage of the 
earlier partisan or guerrilla struggles of the weak colonies 
with the more northern Indian tribes, and recognized as the 
incessant source of mortal peril beside their hard-earned fire- 
sides — although their own agency had been denied by the 
Jesuits — yet when the first intercolonial Avar (known as 
King William^s war,) broke out, the colonists were at no loss 
to know who had been, and would continue to be, their most 
arch and deadly foes. They not only knew these crafty mis- 
sionaries to be such enemies, but struck at them now as such, 
in spite of the pretended sanctities of their calling and garb ; 
and that too, with the merciless and exterminating violence 
of a spirit of retribution fired by the memory of the thousand 
sneaking and incendiary wrongs which had been accumulating 
to their account, through so many years. Hildreth's straight- 
forward account of the progress of this war, best illustrates 
the development so far. 

So soon as the declaration of war between France and 
England became known in America, the Baron Castin easily 



" Sam :^' or, the History of Mystery. 171 

excited the Eastern Indians to renew their depredations. In 
these hostilities the tribes of New Hampshire were induced 
also to join. Those tribes had neither forgotten nor forgiven 
the treachery of Waldron, at the conclusion of Philip's war, 
thirteen years before. Two Indian women, apparently friend- 
ly, sought and obtained a night's lodging at Waldron's gar- 
rison or fortified house at Dover. They rose at midnight, 
opened the doors, and admitted a party lying in wait for the 
purpose. Waldron, an old man of eighty, after a stout 
resistance, was made prisoner. Placed by his captors in an 
elbow-chair at the head of a table in the hall, he was taunted 
with the exclamation, 'Judge Indians now!' after which he 
was put to death with tortures. Twenty others were killed. 
Twenty-nine were carried off as prisoners. The village was 
burned. The fort at Pemaquid, the extreme eastern frontier, 
was soon after attacked by a party of Penobscots, resident in 
the neighborhood, instigated by the Jesuit Thury, who lived 
among them as a missionary. The garrison, obliged to sur- 
render, was dismissed by the Indians, but the fort, which 
Andros had built, was destroyed. An attack upon Casco was 
repulsed by Churth, the famous partisan of Philip's war, sent 
from Massachusetts with two hundred and fifty men. But 
all the settlements further east were ravaged and broken up. 
In hopes to engage the formidable Mohawks as auxiliaries 
against these eastern tribes, commissioners from Boston pro- 
ceeded to Albany, then held by the members of the New 
York council opposed to Leisler. In a conference had there 
with some chiefs of the Five Nations, they expressed their 
determination to continue the war against Canada, but they 
could not be prevailed upon to lift the hatchet against their 
Indian brethren of the East. 

Eeduced to extreme distress by the late successful inroads 
of the Iroquois, Canada had just received relief by the arrival 
from France of Count Frontenac, re-commissioned as governor, 
and bringing with him such of the Indian prisoners sent to 
France as had survived the galleys, troops, supplies, and a 
scheme for the conquest and occupation of New York. As a part 
of this scheme, the Chevalier de la Cofliniere, who had accompa- 
nied Frontenac to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, proceeded to 
cruise off the coast of New England, making many prizes, 
and designing to attack New York by sea, while Frontenac 



172 " Sam: '' or, the History op Mystery. 

assailed it on the land side. Frontenac, though sixty-eight 
years of age, had all the buoyancy and vigor of youth. He 
was a man of great energy and determination, and his 
former administration of the colony made him aware of the 
measures which the exigency demanded. The Iroquois had 
already retired from Montreal, and preparations were imme- 
diately made for relieving Fort Frontenac. These prepara- 
tions, however, were too late, for the garrison had already set 
fire to the fort, and retired down the river. Means were still 
found, however, to keep up the communication with Macki- 
naw. Not able to prosecute this scheme of conquest, Fron- 
tenac presently detached three war-parties, to visit on the 
Eno;lish frontier those same miseries which Canada had so 
recently experienced at the hands of the Five Nations. 

In the course of the last twenty years, a number of con- 
verted Mohawks, induced to retire from among their heathen 
brethren, had established themselves at the rapids of St. 
Louis, in a village known also as Cagnawaga, on the south bank 
of the St. Lawrence, nearly opposite Montreal. It was chiefly 
these converted Mohawks, well acquainted with the settle- 
ments about Albany, who composed, with a number of 
Frenchmen, the first of Frontenac's war parties, amounting 
in the whole to a hundred and ten persons. Guided by the 
watercourses, whose frozen surface furnished them a jDath, 
they traversed a wooded wilderness covered with deep snows. 
(Jan. 1690,) Pressing stealthily forward in a single file, the 
foremost wore snow-shoes, and so beat a track for the rest. 
At night the snow was thrown up toward the side whence 
the wind came, and in the hollow thus scooped out the party 
slept on branches of pine, round a fire in the midst. A little 
parched corn served them for provisions, eked out by such 
game as they killed. After a twenty-two days' march, intent 
on their bloody purpose, they approached Schenectady, the 
object of their toil. This was a Dutch village on the Mo- 
hawk, then the outpost of the settlements about Albany. 
The cluster of some forty houses was protected by a palisade, 
but the gates were open and unguarded, and at midnight 
the inhabitants slept profoundly. The assailants entered in 
silence, divided themselves into several parties, and, giving 
the signal by the terrible war-whoop, commenced the attack. 
Shrieks of women and children answered. Doors were broken 



" Sam: ^' or, the History of Mystery. 173 

open ; houses set on fire ; blood flowed. Sixty were slain on 
the spot ; twenty-seven were taken prisoners ; the rest fled, 
half naked, along the road to Albany through a driving 
snow-storm, a deep snow, and cold so bitter that many lost 
their limbs by frost. The assailants set off* for Canada with 
their prisoners and their plunder, and eff'ected their escape, 
though not without serious loss inflicted by some Mohawk 
warriors, who hastened to pursue them. The terror inspired 
by this attack was so great, that, for the sake of aid and 
support, the malcontents who held Albany, submitted to the 
hated Leisler. But nothing could prevail on that rash and 
passionate chief to use his authority with moderation. He 
confiscated the property of his principal opponents. Bayard 
and Nichols were held in confinement ; and for the arrest 
of Livingston, warrants were sent to Boston and Hartford, 
whither he had fled for safety. 

Frontenac's second war party, composed of only fifty-two 
persons, departing from Three Eivers, a village half way 
from Montreal to Quebec, ascended the St. Francis, entered 
the valley of the Upper Connecticut, and thence made their 
way across the mountains and forests of New Hampshire. 
Presently they descended on Salmon Falls, a frontier village 
on the chief branch of the Piscataqua. (March 27, 1690.) 
They attacked it by surprise, killed most of the male in- 
habitants, plundered and burned the houses, and carried off 
fifty-four prisoners, chiefly women and children, whom they 
drove before them, laden with the spoils. While thus re- 
turning, they fell in with the third war-party from Quebec, 
and, joining forces, proceeded to attack Casco. A part of the 
garrison was lured into an ambuscade and destroyed. The 
rest, seeing their palisades about to be set on fire, surrendered 
on terms as prisoners of war. (May.) 

Such was the new and frightful sort of warfare to which 
the English colonists were exposed. The savage ferocity of 
the Indians, guided by the sagacity and civilized skill and 
enterprise of French officers, became ten times more terrible. 
The influence which the French missionaries had acquired by 
persevering self-sacrifice and the highest eflbrts of Christian 
devotedness was now availed of, as too often happens, by mere 
worldly policy, to stimulate their converts to hostile inroads 
and midnight murders. Keligious zeal sharpened the edge 



174 " Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

of savage liate. The English were held up to the Indians 
not merely as enemies, but as heretics, upon whom it was a 
Christian duty to make war. If the chaplet of victory were 
missed, at least the crown of martyrdom was sure. 

These cruel Indian inroads seemed to the sufferers abun- 
dant confirmation of the tales of the Huguenots scattered 
through the colonies as the bloody and implacable spirit of 
the Catholic faith. These religious refugees were so numer- 
ous in Boston and New York, as to have in each of those 
towns a church of their own. Hatred of popery received a 
new impetus. It is hardly to be wondered at that the few 
Catholics of Maryland, though their fathers had been the 
founders of that colony, were disfranchised, and subjected to 
all the disabilities by which, in Britain and Ireland, the 
suppression of Catholicism was vainly attempted. Probably 
also to this period we may refer the act of Rhode Island, of 
unknown date, which excluded Catholics from becoming free- 
men of that colony. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

The Queen Ann's, or " Second Intercolonial War " between " Sam " and the 
Order ol Jesuits — The Order not quite ready for formidable operations 
in the South — Retrospective glance at acts and influences of the Catholic 
Priesthool in Mexico from the Conquest — Evidence of Clavigero the 
Catholic Historian of Mexico — The monstrous destruction of the archives 
of Historical Pictures in Yucatan by an " Ecclesiastic " — Destruction of 
the most precious Arts, which was common throughout Mexico. 

The last chapter may be well considered as settling the 
question of the participation and predominating influence of 
the Jesuit missionaries in the first intercolonial war, and as 
against ♦^^he sorely beleaguered Protestant colonies of the 
north. As yet, their schemes of southern acquisition and 
supremac}' in the South had not been consummated — their 
cordon of •' Reductions " not sufficiently completed to make 
their activs demonstrations in that quarter so formidable, as 
to render more detail on our own part necessary. The pur- 
pose of this history being rather to render clear the histori- 
cal relations of *' Sam" to his internal foes, than to enter 
systematically into more than the outline of others, which 
illustrate rather the minuter phases of his own huge devel- 
opment, and his relations to avowed and outward enemies. 
It now becomes necessary that we should look somewhat to 
those Jesuit antecedents which led immediately to the next 
even more extended and exterminating war — the Queen 
Ann's, or *' Second Intercolonial war'' — ^between " Sam " and 
his desperate foe — the Order of Jesus ! 

The moment the Jesuits found themselves comparatively 
secure of their foothold in Acadia, which might form for 

(175) 



176 *'Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

tliem a rallying point upon the continent, then, with that 
skillful mixture of military law and spiritual despotism which 
has always constituted the phenomenon of their ascendency 
in the Christian world, they pushed forw^ard their corpse-like 
trainhands of helpless devotees, in eager emulation for more 
extended explorations and " Eeductions,'^ upon the wilderness 
fastnesses of the north-west, in search of the sources of cer- 
tain great traditionary outlets of the then boundless limits of 
the New World, which they meant to claim and assert as 
their own, since the old seemed passing so rapidly from 
their grasp. Gold as well as souls seemed always to have 
been most discreetly mingled with their aspirations for con- 
quest in America ; and the earliest delusions of gold in Aca- 
dia, w^hich so rapidly gave way before the sterner facts of a 
bleak and inhospitable reality, had been kept alive by vague 
rumors of a mighty empire, drained by endless riveis flowing 
through sands of gold, which held their sources far in a mys- 
terious interior, and had fired anew immaculate ecsiaticisms 
which look to their final realization in a " golden city," which, 
either in heaven or on earth was to constitute their reward. 
The prodigious results of the conquests of Cortez and the 
Pizarros had not wanted of circulation throuodi tiie rio-ht 
hands — but then, although the holy Order of Jesus liad not 
been organized, its founders had not failed to participate in, 
and comprehend the benefits of, such acquisitions — indeed, it 
had been during the immediate ferment of European mind, 
caused by the introduction of this new and mighty element, 
that the crafty and sagacious intellect of Loyola prcjjected 
this late and most fatal organization on this the sole predomi- 
nating idea of Jesuitism — though the enmity to Protestant- 
ism was the next of course, as he saw in it the mortal 
antagonism of spiritual despotism ! 

That these apparently unselfish enterprises of the early Jes- 
uits should have proceeded from such causes, why need we stop 
to argue ? But it may be well that we should give a few pre- 
liminary facts as illustrating, here and there, the condition 
in w^hich the early catholic conquest left Old and New Mexico. 
First, as showing in how much the Catholic Church proper 
has conserved to the preservation of the ancient literature and 
arts of all countries which have been conquered by Catholic 



" Sam :^^ or, the History of Mystery. 177 

arms. This event we now quote, wcurred during the reign 
of Charles V, of Spain, when as the dominant power of 
Europe, he could afford to wage single-handed war against 
the rest of the world — when Cortez was sending him the 
ravished treasures of the New World, and completing the 
conquest of the whole Mexican empire — when his steel-clad 
cohorts were led by tonsiled priests bearing the holy cross and 
every new scene of rapine and massacre was only consecrated 
by the Catholic Priests. One of their own number, Clavigero, 
in a formal history of the early Mexican Empire and con- 
quest by his own friends, is compelled to relate as follows, in 
his zeal as an antiquarian, concerning one incident of the con- 
quest of Yucatan : 

Though games, dances, and music, conduced less to utility 
than pleasure, this was not the case with History and Paint- 
ing ; two arts which ought not to be separated in the history 
of Mexico, as they had no other historians than their paint- 
ers, nor any other writings than their paintings to commemo- 
rate the events of the nation. 

The Toltecas were the first people of the New World who 
employed the art of painting for the ends of history ; at least 
we know of no other nation which did so before them. The 
same practice prevailed, from time immemorial, among the 
Acolhuas, the seven Aztecan tribes, and among all the pol- 
ished nations of Anahuac. The Chechemecas and the Otomies 
were taught it by the Acolhuas and the Toltecas, when they 
deserted their savage life. 

Among the paintings of the Mexicans, and all those 
nations, there were many which were mere portraits or images 
of their gods, their kings, their heroes, their animals, and 
their plants. With these the royal palaces of Mexico and 
Tezcuco both abounded. Others were historical, containing 
an account of particular events, such as are the first thirteen 
paintings of the collection of Mendoza, and that of the jour- 
ney of the Aztecas, which appears in the work of the trav- 
eler Gemelli. Others were mythological, containing the 
mysteries of their religion. Of this kind is the volume which 
is preserved in the great library of the Order of Bologna. 
Others were codes, in which were compiled their laws, their 
rites, their customs, their taxes, or tributes ; and such are all 
those of the above mentioned collection of Mendoza, from the 



178 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

fourteenth to the sixty-tliird. Others were chronological, 
astronomical, or astrological, in which was represented their 
calendar, the position of the stars, the changes of the moon, 
eclipses, and prognostications of the variations of the weather. 
This kind of painting was called by them TonalamafL Si- 
guenza makes mention'-'-' of a painting representing such like 
prognostications which he inserted in his Ciclographia Mexi- 
cana. Acosta relates ' that in the province of Yucatan, there 
were certain volumes, bound up according to their manner, 
in which the wise Indians had marked the distribution of 
their seasons, the knowledge of the planets, of animals, and 
other natural productions, and also their antiquity ; things all 
highly curious and minutely described ; ' which, as the same 
author says, were lost by the indiscreet zeal of an ecclesiastic, 
who, imagining them to be full of superstitious meanings, 
burned them, to the great grief of the Indians, and the 
utmost regret of the curious among the Spaniards. Other 
paintings were topographical, or chorographical, which served 
not only to show the extent and boundaries of possessions, 
but likewise the situation of places, the direction of the coasts, 
and the course of rivers. Cortez says, in his first letter to 
Charles Y, that having made inquiries to know if there was 
any secure harbor for vessels in the Mexican gulf, Monte- 
zuma presented him a painting of the whole coast, from the 
port of OhalcMuhcuecan, where at present Vera Cruz lies, to 
the river Coatzacualco. Bernal Diaz relates that Cortez also, 
in a long and difficult voyage which he made to the Bay of 
Honduras, made use of a chart which was presented to him 
by the lords of Coatzacualco, in which all the places and rivers 
were marked from the coast of Coatzacualco to Hueja- 
callan. 

The Mexican empire abounded with all those kinds of 
paintings ; for their painters were innumerable, and there 
was hardly anything left unpainted. If those had been pre- 
served, there would have been nothing wanting to the history 
of Mexico ; but the first preachers of the gospel, suspicious 
that superstition was mixed with all their paintings, made a 
furious destruction of them. Of all those which were to be 
found in Tezcuco, where the chief school of painting was, they 

^' In his work entitled, Libra Astronomica, printed in Mexico. 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 179 

collected such a mass, in the square of the market, it appeared 
like a little mountain ; to this they set fire and buried in the 
ashes the memory of many most interesting and curious 
events. The loss of those monuments of antiquity was inex- 
pressibly afflicting to the Indians, and regretted sufflciently 
afterward by the authors of it, when they became sensible 
of their error ; for they were compelled to endeavor to remedy 
the evil, in the first place, by obtaining information from the 
mouths of the Indians ; secondly, by collecting all the paint- 
ings which had escaped their fury, to illustrate the history 
of the nation ; but although they recovered many, these were 
not sufficient ; for from that time forward, the possessors of 
paintings became so jealous of their preservation and conceal- 
ment from the Spaniards, it has proved difficult, if not im- 
possible to make them part with one of them. '•' 

" The History of Mexico ; Collected from Spanish and Mexican Historians, 
from Manuscripts and ancient Paintings of the Indians, together with the 
Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards ; Illustrated by Engravings, -with 
Critical Dissertations on the Land, Animals, and Inhabitants of Mexico. 
By Abbe D. Francesco Saverio Clavigero. Translated from the original 
Italian, by Charles Cullen, Esq. In three volumes. Vol. ii. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Vandalism of tlie Catholic Priesthood continued in New Mexico — Anti- 
quarian researches concerning the first Missions to New Mexico — Con- 
quest of California — Various efforts to penetrate the mysterious gold 
region by the Catholic governors of California — Extermination of the 
Catholic Spaniards of the Conquestador-Occupation — Hidden ruins and 
strange Traditions — Ruins of magnificent Catholic Cities — Marvelous 
treasures won by Cortez from Montezuma. 

Clavigero's account of tlie destructive proclivities of the 
Catholic priests who accompanied the Conquestadors under 
Cortez, to the dismemberment and annihilation of the nation- 
alities of the Mexican empire, does not cover the whole 
ground of complaint with which universal history teems 
against these rare conservators of the literature and science 
of the world. Nor was it to Old Mexico proper, that these 
vandalish ravages of savage intolerance were confined. We 
shall turn to New Mexico, which is nearer home, for the 
examples of exterminating bigotry, which surpass in enor- 
mity the wrongs of even the old empire. 

The gold-craving white man seems to have been destined, 
according to the ancient faith of the natives of Mexico, to be 
its scourge and conqueror.* 

Cortez found Mexico half conquered for him by an old 
tradition. It was taught in their temples, and believed by 
the whole Indian population, that a race of white men was to 
come from the east to rule the natives of the land. The 
apparition of a band of fair-complexioned men clothed in 
arrow-proof garments of steel, and armed with the death- 
dealing firebolts of heaven, sealed the truth of this imme- 
morial prediction to the awe-struck Mexicans, and they bowed 
in the helpless submission of their superstitious fears, to the 
wonderful strangers. However this belief originated, it is 

** See Appendix, for curious note. 
(180) 



" Sam :'' or, the History of Mystery. 181 

singular that it should have preceded the approach of the 
white man on every part of America, and that its active 
effect should to this day, fortify the unexplored gold region 
against his advance within its limits. 

Perhaps this land, in which are, unquestionably, existent 
edifices of Aztec construction, and which still hears the name 
of Montezuma pronounced with reverence, may have been the 
cradle of the proud conquerors who swept the Mexican plateau, 
and planted there the golden empire which Cortez overthrew. 
If so, in this, their last unsubdued stronghold, the light and 
liberality of American enterprise may yet discover the final 
dwelling-place of their history and religion, and that will be 
of more worth than their glittering ores. 

There is a curious Indian superstition, familiar to most of 
the early Texan borderers, often told in connection with the 
sad prophecy of the extinction of the red race under the 
breath of white civilization. The Indians affirm that the 
honey-bee always goes before the white settler to warn the 
red-man to retire and yield up his hunting-grounds to the 
dominion of the ax and plow. In 1820, the Indians say, the 
first bees made their appearance on the Brazos and Colorado 
rivers, in Texas, and five years after, Austin's settlement 
arose on their banks and rendered the Indians thenceforth, 
aliens and intruders on their native soil. 

Before the invasion of Mexico by the Spaniards, there was 
no mining science in the country, and the gold, which greatly 
outbalanced the silver in quantity, was simply gathered from 
or near the surface of the ground, and mostly brought by 
porters from great distances in the interior of the country. 
The preponderance of gold before, and of silver since the 
Conquest, is readily explained by the introduction of a more 
elaborate and thorough mining system. Silver is rarely 
found in a pure, unmixed state on the surface, and could 
only be produced, in large quantities, by the cruel and scien- 
tific despotism of Spain. The skill, implements, and experi- 
ence of European art, and the human force of thousands 
upon thousands of the native population, were turned into 
the mines, and then the ore was pursued into the bowels of 
the earth by the conquerors ; and numberless silver-mines, 
that lay untouched and useless under the simple Aztec rule, 
became immensely productive under the Spaniards. Gold 



182 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

mines were seldom worked when found ; and those distant 
ones, from which the native princes gathered a ready harvest, 
independent of science, and without penetrating the earth, 
are now lost in obscurity. In the reckless annihilation of 
the native priesthood, and the sweeping destruction of their 
records, the Catholics buried much valuable lore. As if 
their murdered faith had, in its last death-agony, pressed the 
signet of forgetfulness on the lips of its desolate and aban- 
doned children, the most beautiful of their arts, and the 
most coveted of their gifts passed away from the native Mex- 
icans in a single generation. It seemed to be with them a 
religious and patriotic duty to extinguish every light that 
could serve their hard taskmasters. Art has lost their 
exquisite colors for painting, their gorgeous feather-work, 
their adamantine-tempered copper ; and science misses their 
historic records and their astronomical calculations, while 
avarice mourns the lost secret of their mines of emeralds, 
amethysts, and rich beds of gold. 

For the first two centuries after the conquest by Cortez, 
the Indian population maintained a stern and desperate 
silence on the subject of gold. It was rare that either bribes 
or tortures could induce an Indian to admit that he knew 
where any could be found, and thus those mines in the more 
remote provinces fell into immediate oblivion. The vague 
and traditionary evidences of their existence, were not incen- 
tives enough to warrant the toil and danger of exploration 
and conquest, while those at home, in the midst of a subdued 
serf-population, gave such prompt and liberal returns. 

Some may suppose that the chaos and oppression of the 
Spanish Conquest could not so utterly extinguish the knowl- 
edge of excessively rich mines, as to prevent their avaricious 
conquerors from bringing them to use, however remote their 
situation ; but to this may be opposed the undeniable fact, 
that the locality of the emerald mines is absolutely lost, 
though their existence somewhere is as positively a matter 
of record as any event of the Conquest. The same destroy- 
ing power that swept away the temples, the religion, the 
social customs, the national records, and even the language 
and history of the conquered race in one overwhelming wave, 
annihilated, also, much knowledge that would have been 
acceptable from its own interest. 



" Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 183 

Light enough, and temptation enough, remained however, 
to urge the Spaniards to attempt the subjugation of the Cali- 
fornia basin ; but all that we know certainly of their expedition 
is, their unsatisfactory results, and the shadowy reports brought 
back by the survivors, of well-built cities in the interior, and 
treasures of gold in the encircling mountains of the uncon- 
querable country. On the San Saba, as well as on the Pecos, 
there is unquestionably, vast mineral wealth, formerly not 
unknown to the Mexicans, but which nothing but the firm, 
stable protection of our government, and the enterprising 
audacity of our citizens, can hope to wrest from the supersti- 
tious control of the Indians. 

The wide expanse of country above the Kio Gila, and be- 
tween that river and the Eio Colorado, as also the territory 
next beyond the mountains to the eastward, embracing the 
valley of the Eio Grande, and that of the Pecos, early at- 
tracted the attention of the Spaniards. No sooner had they 
subdued the Aztecs and their dependencies, than they turned 
their armed enterprises northward, toward the regions just 
indicated, and concerning the mineral riches of which, they 
had received, from their first landing in Mexico, many vague 
but glowing accounts. The history and results of their en- 
terprises may be thus rapidly summed up. 

No sooner had the general subjugation of Mexico and its 
immediate dependencies been completed, and its provinces 
partitioned among the Spanish leaders, than the attention 
of the latter was directed to the unknown region beyond 
them, and of the relics and magnificence of which they often 
received the most exaggerated accounts. Nuno de Guzman, 
to whom had been assigned the governorship of New Gallicia, 
comprising the northern division of Mexico, heard many of 
their accounts, relating to the countries northward of his 
jurisdiction, which excited his curiosity and influenced his 
avarice. He had in his service a Tejos (Taos ?) Indian, who 
told him of a vast northern country, abounding in gold and 
silver. Confiding in his accounts, Guzman collected an army, 
and in 1530, in less than ten years after Cortez entered the 
valley of Anahuac, started for this unknown region. Diffi- 
culties intervened, and the death of his Indian guide induced 
him to abandon his enterprise, although entertaining implicit 
faith in the reports that had reached him. 



184 " Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

The accounts of Cabeca de Vaca, who penetrated from the 
coast of Florida to the Pacific, and who, six years after the 
abandonment of Guzman's expedition, succeeded in reaching 
the city of Mexico, revived the waning excitement in respect 
to the rich mineral region of the north. Although he could 
convey no personal information on the subject, he had satis- 
fied himself of the existence of a semi-civilized people in 
that direction, and had received from the Indians accounts 
of its riches, coinciding with those of the Taos Indian already 
named. 

Vasquez Coronado, who had succeeded Guzman in the 
governorship of New Gallicia, immediately took measures to 
ascertain the truth of these reports. He dispatched north- 
ward, with instructions to penetrate to these regions, a monk 
named Niza, who penetrated as far as the Gila, when, fright- 
ened by the prospect before him, he returned to Coronado, 
bringing him a long account of his adventures, partly true, 
but for the most part, as was afterward discovered, fabulous. 
He professed to have discovered, northward of the Gila, large 
and populous cities, surpassing Mexico in size, splendor and 
wealth. He represented the people to be possessed of great 
abundance of gold, and that their commonest vessels, and the 
walls of their temples were covered with that precious metal. 
Upon the authority of " a man born in the principal city of 
Cibola" — the name given to the northern El Dorado — " the 
houses were built of lime and stone, the gates and small 
pillars of turquoises, and all the vessels and ornaments of 
the houses were made of gold." Other equally extravagant 
statements were obtained from other sources, as we perceive 
in the subjoined extracts, from a letter written by Coronado 
to the viceroy, Mendoza, bearing date March 8, 1539. 

"In the province of Topira there are no great cities, but 
the houses are built of stone, and are very good; and within 
them the people have great stores of gold, which is, as it were, 
lost, because they know not what use to put it to. They 
wear emeralds and other precious jewels upon their breasts, 
are valiant, and have very strong armor made of silver, 
fashioned after the shapes of beasts. Beyond Topira there 
is still another country, the people whereof wear on their 
bodies gold, emeralds, and other precious stones, and are 
commonly served in gold and silver, wherewith they cover 



"Sam:" or the History of Mystery. 185 

their houses ; and the chief men wear great chains of gold, 
well wrought, about their necks, and are appareled with 
painted garments, and have a great store of wild kine." 

At this time a sea expedition on the Pacific was undertaken 
by Ulloa, under the direction of Cortez, which had for its 
object not less the discovery of the golden region of the 
north, than the exploration of the coast. We have no room 
to trace its progress. Suffice to say, it returned with no 
tangible evidence of the wealth which it was expected to 
discover. 

Cortez, who fancied he saw another Mexico in the golden 
country of the north, which was now the subject of conversa- 
tion on every tongue, was eager to add its conquest to his 
alreadv hio^h renown. And when, in 1540, it was resolved 
to send northward a land expedition to explore the country, 
the right of command was contested between Cortez, as Cap- 
tain-General of Xew Spain, and Mendoza, as Viceroy of 
Mexico. The latter was successful, and Cortez, disappointed 
and disgusted, returned to Spain. 

The command of the expedition was given to Coronado, 
who set out, with a large party of armed followers, early in 
the year 154:0. After a protracted journey he reached the 
Rio Gila, then called the Nexpa, and bolcUy ventured upon 
the ruo-o-ed and broken countrv bevond it. toward the north. 
After many days' travel, in which he encountered mnumer- 
able obstacles and incredible hardships, he reached the valley 
of a stream flowing westward, and which recent discoveries 
have sho\Nni probably to have been the Rio Salinas, the j^rinci- 
pal northern tributary of the Gila. Here he found the cities 
of Cibola. The delusion was then dispelled. Instead of 
cities glittering with gold, he found a people living in con- 
siderable towns, cultivating the soil, and furnishing striking 
contrasts, in their simplicity, to the splendor which the con- 
querors had encountered in Mexico and Peru. They were 
not, however, ignorant of the precious metals ; on the con- 
trary, Coronado, whose ardor was already effectually cooled, 
expressly states that he "here found some quantity of gold 
and silver, which those skilled in minerals esteem to be very 
good. To this hour," he adds, with evident regret, " I can 
not learn of this people where they obtain it, and I see they 
refuse to tell me the truth, imagining that in a short time 
16 



186 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

I will depart hence. I hope in God!^ concludes tlie devout 
commander, " they shall no longer excuse themselves P^ The 
natives, nevertheless, succeeded in excusing themselves, and 
upon their representations Coronado was induced to cross the 
mountains to the eastward, into the valley of the Rio Grande, 
where he was further amused with accounts of a mysterious 
city called Quivera.'" Here, it was said, ruled " a king 
whose name was Tatratax, with a long heard, hoary-headed, 
and rich, Vv^ho worshiped a cross of gold, and the image of 
a woman, which was the queen of heaven.'^ " This news," 
says Gomara, " did greatly rejoice and cheer up the army, 
although some thought it false, and the report of the friars." 
The golden Quivera, however, retreated like a phantom he- 
fore the disappointed and impatient Spaniards. The natives, 
anxious only to rid themselves of the hated presence of the 
invaders, responded to every inquiry hy pointing to the north- 
eastward, in which direction Coronado moved with his army. 
Instead of the long-sought Quivera, he found only the high, 
hroad and desert plains of the great huffalo range, traversed 
hy the roving Arapahoes and hostile Pawnees, and after 
wandering long in this inhospitable region, he returned 
completely dispirited to the Rio Grande, and speedily retraced 
his steps to Mexico. 

It is worthy of mention that, while at Tucayan, a short 
distance to the northward of Cibola, the towns of which still 
exist, about one hundred and fifty miles to the westward of 
Santa Fe, on some of the northern tributaries of the Gila, 
he obtained an account of a great river to the north-west 
(undoubtedly the Colorado,) beyond which were mines of gold 
and great treasure. Thither he dispatched an officer, Lopez 
de Cardenas, with twelve men, who penetrated to the Color- 
ado, but finding the country barren and uninviting, and the 
weather cold, he returned to Cibola without making any dis- 
coveries of interest. 

The unfortunate results of Coronado's expedition had the 
effect to discourage all similar enterprises in the same quar- 
ter. Nevertheless, forty years thereafter, in 1586, Antonio 
de Espejo, animated by the accounts of a Franciscan monk 
named Ruiz, set out from the mines of San Barbara in 

'•' This fabulous city is not the " Gran Quivera " of the valley of the Pecos. 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 187 

Mexico, for the rich regions which he was assured existed far 
to the north-west. He went through the valley of the Eio 
Grande, where he found numerous traces of mineral wealth, 
and finally reached the towns of the Cibola. He here heard 
repeated the stories that had been told to Coronada, which, 
however, he relates in more distinct terms. He was told by 
the natives that " sixty days^ journey to the north-west was a 
very mighty lake, upon the banks of which stood many great 
and good towns, and that the inhabitants of the same had 
plenty of gold,'' etc. He determined to proceed thither, but 
after going thirty leagues, he came to the towns of the 
Moqui, when, deserted by his followers, he was obliged to 
relinquish his design. He, nevertheless, " learned much of 
the great lake aforesaid," the reports agreeing fully with 
what he had before heard of the great abundance of gold in 
the vicinity of the lake. 

It is eminently worthy of remark, that before returning, he 
visited ''certain very rich mines'' in the vicinity of the Moqui, 
(say two hundred and fifty miles west of Santa F^) from 
which he assures us he took with his own hands, ''exceedingly 
rich metals holding great quantities of silver.'' These metals, 
he adds further, are found in broad and accessible veins. 

It seems certain, both from the accounts of Coronado and 
Espejo, who alone have ever penetrated this northern country, 
that the natives had gold in their possession. It can not be 
supposed that it was obtained from so remote a deposit as that 
on the Sacramento ; and the inference that it was found in 
their own vicinity, near the shores of the golden-sanded lake, 
to which their accounts refer, is sustained by the direct state- 
ments of Espejo, quoted above. 

In this connection it may be mentioned, that immediately 
southward from the country of the Cabela, described by Coro- 
nado, and near the point where he probably crossed the Gila, 
the little river Prierte comes down from between the high 
mountains of the north. Concerning this stream. Col. Emory 
says, in his recent report of the march of the army of the 
west through the valley of the Gila — " As the story goes, the 
Prierte flows down from the mountains burnished with gold. 
Its sands are said to be full of the precious metal. A few ad- 
venturers, who ascended the river, hunting beaver, washed the 
sands at night, where they halted, and were richly rewarded 



188 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

for their trouble. Tempted by tlieir success, they made a 
second trip, but were attacked and most of them killed by 
the Indians. My authority for this statement is Londeau, who, 
though illiterate, is truthful." It is well known that there 
are p'old mines about one hundred and fiftv miles to the east- 
ward of this point, which have been, and still are, worked 
with considerable success. 

The mention made by Espejo and other early writers, of 
mines and mineral wealth in the upper half of the valley of 
the Eio Grande, and probably in the valley of the Pecos river, 
has been confirmed by later authorities, whose accounts have 
superseded those of an earlier date. A number of mines are 
now worked in the valley, and from what is now known of the 
mineral productiveness of the Pacific slope, it is reasonable to 
conclude that the intervening country is equally rich in the 
precious metals. Indeed, from the geological features of the 
country, it can hardly be otherwise.* 

The rapid sketches we have so far furnished, cover much 
of the earlier historical aspects of this period, drawn from 
strictly antiquarian researches ; we will now proceed to give 
from more modern authorities, later views of our subject. 
Gregg, the intelligent and agreeable Santa P^ and New 
Mexican traveler, devotes an interesting chapter to this sub- 
ject in his book *' Commerce of America." He sa3^s : 

" Tradition speaks of numerous and productive mines hav- 
ing been in operation in New Mexico before the expulsion of 
the Spaniards in 1680 ; but that the Indians, seeing that the 
cupidity of the conquerors had been the cause of their former 
cruel oppressions, determined to conceal all the mines by fill- 
ing them up, and obliterating as much as possible every trace 
of them. This was done so effectually, as is told, that after 
the second conquest, (the Spaniards in the meantime not hav- 
ing turned their attention to mining pursuits for a series of 
years,) succeeding generations were never able to discover 
them again. Indeed, it is now generally credited by the 
Spanish population, that the Pueblo Indians, up to the pres- 
ent day, are acquainted with the locales of a great number of 
these wonderful mines, of which they most sedulously preserve 

"■'^ Tlie Author of Sam is indebted for mucli of the above narrative, to the 
researches of E. G. Squire, the antiquarian. 



"Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 189 

the secret. Eumor further asserts that the old men and 
sages of the Pueblos periodically lecture the youths on this 
subject, warning them against discovering the mines to the 
Spaniards, lest the cruelties of the original conquest be re- 
newed toward them, and they be forced to toil and suffer in 
those mines as in days of yore. To the more effectual pres- 
ervation of secrecy, it is also stated that they have called in 
the aid of superstition, by promulgating the belief that the 
Indian who reveals the location of these hidden treasures will 
surely perish by the wrath of their gods. 

Playing upon the credulity of the people, it sometimes 
happens that a roguish Indian will amuse himself at the 
expense of his reputed superiors in intelligence, by proffering 
to disclose some of these concealed treasures. I once knew a 
waggish savage of this kind to propose to show a valley where 
virgin gold could be "scraped up by the basket-full." On a 
bright Sunday morning, the time appointed for the expedi- 
tion, the chuckling Indian set out with a train of Mexicans 
at his heels, provided with mules and horses, and a large 
quantity of meal-bags to carry in the golden stores ; but as 
the shades of evening were closing around the party, he dis- 
covered — that he couldn't find the place. 

It is not at all probable, however, that the aborigines 
possess a tenth part of the knowledge of these ancient foun- 
tains of wealth, that is generally attributed to them ; but that 
many valuable mines ivet'e once wrought in this province, not 
only tradition but authenticated records and existing relics 
sufficiently prove. In every quarter of the territory there 
are still to be seen vestiges of ancient excavations, and in 
some places, ruins of considerable towns evidently reared for 
mining purposes. 

Among these ancient ruins the most remarkable are 
those of La Gran Quivira, about one hundred miles southward 
of Santa Fe. This appears to have been a considerable city, 
larger and richer by far than the present capital of New 
Mexico has ever been. Many walls, particularly those of 
churches, still stand erect amid the desolation that surrounds 
them, as if their sacredness had been a shield ao-ainst which 
Time dealt his blows in vain. The style of architecture is 
altogether superior to anything at present to be found north 
of Chihuahua — being of hewn stone, a building material 



190 " Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

wholly unused in New Mexico. What is more extraordinary 
still, is, that there is no water within less than some ten miles 
of the ruins ; yet we find several stone cisterns, and remains 
of aqueducts eight or ten miles in length, leading from the 
neighboring mountains, from whence water was no douht con- 
veyed. And, as there seem to be no indications whatever of 
the inhabitants ever having been engaged in agricultural 
pursuits, what could have induced the rearing of a city in 
such an arid, woodless plain as this, except the proximity of 
some valuable mine, it is difficult to imagine. From the 
peculiar character of the place and the remains of the cisterns 
still existing, the object of pursuit in this case would seem to 
have been a placer, a name applied to mines of gold-dust inter- 
mixed with the earth. However, other mines have no doubt 
been worked in the adjacent mountains, as many spacious 
pits are found, such as are usually dug in pursuit of ores of 
silver, etc.; and it is stated that in several places heaps of 
scoria are still to be seen. 

By some persons these ruins have been supposed to be the 
remains of an ancient Pueblo or aboriginal citv. That is not 
probable, however ; for though the relics of aboriginal temples 
might possibly be mistaken for those of Catholic churches, yet 
it is not to be presumed that the Spanish coat-of-arms would 
be found sculptured and painted upon their facades, as is the 
case in more than one instance. The most rational accounts 
represent this to have been a wealthy Spanish city before the 
general massacre of 1680, in which calamity the inhabitants 
perished — all except one, as the story goes ; and that their 
immense treasures were buried in the ruins. Some credu- 
lous adventurers have lately visited the spot in search of 
these long-lost coffers, but as yet none have been found.'" 

The mines of Cerrillos, twenty miles southward of Santa 
Fe, although of undoubted antiquity, have, to all appearance, 
been worked to some extent within the present century; indeed, 
they have been reopened within the recollection of the present 
generation ; but the enterprise having been attended with 
little success, it was again abandoned. Among numerous 
pits still to be seen at this place, there is one of immense 

"' In the same vicinity there are some othei' ruins of a similar character, 
though less extensive ; the principal of which are those of Abo, Tagique, 
Chilili. The last of these is now being resettled by the Mexicans. 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 191 

depth cut throuoli solid rock, whicli, it is believed, could not 
have cost less than ^100,000. In the mountains of Sandia, 
Abiquiti, and more particularly in those of Picuris and Em- 
budo, there are also numerous excavations of considerable 
depth. A few years ago, an enterprising American under- 
took to reopen one of those near Picuris ; but after having 
penetrated to the depth of more than a hundred feet, without 
reaching the bottom of the original excavation, (which had 
probably been filling up for the last hundred and fifty years,) 
he gave it up for want of means. Other attempts have since 
been made, but with as little success. Whether these fail- 
ures have been caused by want of capital and energy, or 
whether the veins of ore were exhausted by the original 
miners, remains for future enterprise to determine. 

I should premise, before further reference to authorities, 
that the ruins of the three cities, so e\ddently built by the 
Indians, under the direction of the Spaniards, or rather of 
Spanish priests, are all met with in the valley of the Pecos, 
at no very great distance apart. They are Abio, Quarra, 
and Quivira. It is the ruins of Quarra which Major Abert, 
of the United States Commission Survey, was, at the time of 
this report we proceed to quote, now visiting. He says: 

I now bade adieu to my generous entertainers, and with 
thousands of extravagant compliments from the kind people, 
I set out to overtake the party. After traveling southeast 
for six miles, I reached the ancient village of ' Quarra.' 
Here there is yet standing the walls of a time-worn cathe- 
dral ; it is composed entirely of stone — red sandstone ; the 
pieces are not more than two inches thick. The walls are two 
feet wide, and the outer face dressed oft' to a perfectly plain 
surface. The ground-plan presents the form of a cross, with 
rectangular projections in each of the angles. The short 
arm of the cross is thirty-three feet two inches wide ; the long 
arm is eighteen feet nine inches wide ; their axes are, respect- 
ively, fifty feet and one hundred and twelve feet long, and their 
intersection is thirty feet from the head of the cross. The rect- 
angular projections, that partly fill the angles formed by the 
arms, are six feet square. At the foot of the cross are rectan- 
gular projections, that measure ten feet in the direction of the 
lono' axis, and six feet in the other direction. 



192 *'Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

Around the churcli are the less conspicuous remains of 
numerous houses that had been built of the same material, 
and the surfaces of the walls finished with tools ; but these 
houses are almost level with the earth, while the walls of the 
ancient church rise to a hight of sixty feet. 

While making my measurements, assisted by one of the 
men who had remained with me, a Mexican came up to me 
and said, in the most mysterious way, ' I know something of 
great moment, and want to speak to you — to you alone ; no 
one must be near ; come with me to my house.' I went ; but 
when we arrived there, we found an old ruin fitted up with 
such modern additions as was necessary to render it habitable. 
Here were several women. I sat some time, talking of in- 
different matters, waiting anxiously the important secret ; 
but my friend did not like the presence of the women, and 
would not tell me then ; so I got ready to re-commence my 
journey, while he endeavored, in a thousand ways to detain 
me. I asked him some questions about the geography of the 
country, and about the famous place called ' Gran Quivera.' 
He told me that it was exactly like the buildings of Quarra, 
thus confirming exactly what I had learned at Manzano. 

I now signified my determination to proceed, when this 
man seemed extremely anxious about my going, and at last 
told me that he would meet me in a cedar grove, some dis- 
tance in my route. In a little while I reached the grove, 
and saw him there. He then told me that he had discovered 
the OToatest mine in the countrv, where there was an abun- 
dance of gold and silver. I asked him why he did not go 
and get it ? ' O,' said he, ' you can not have been long in 
this country not to know that we poor people can keep 
nothing ; the Eicos would seize all, but with your protection 
I would be secure in my labors.' Then he added, ' I '11 give 
you my name, write it down, it is Jose Lucero, of Quarra ; 
you can inquire in the villages through which you pass, they 
will tell you that I am honest.' I took down Jose Lucero's 
name, and proceeded on in my journey, so that if any one 
wishes, they can go and seek the gold of Quarra. 

It is the impression of all intelligent explorers, who have 
seen any one of the ruins mentioned, that from the geologi- 
cal character of the country surrounding them, their existence 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 193 

can only be accounted for, upon the supposition that they were 
built for mining purposes, and that since the entire extermi- 
nation of their Spanish tyrants and taskmasters by the In- 
dians in the first great rising of 1680 — they have kept the 
secret of these mines concealed for the reasons given by 
Gregg, and frequently repeated by myself. The significant 
question : — " Why these long aqueducts, bringing water from 
great distances to cities in the midst of arid plains, when but 
a short distance south-east, or west, would have given the 
city-builders, pleasant, beautiful, and well-watered sites ? " — 
has no other reasonable answer that I can perceive. The 
ignorant frontiers-men and savages of Texas had never 
heard the names of Quarra or Quivira, yet they clearly 
pointed them out, in connection with this very neighborhood 
of rich mines. 

Dr. Wislizenus, in his report, says : Not far from these Sa- 
linas the ruins of an old city are found, the fabulous ' la Gran 
Quivira.^ The common report in relation to this place is, 
that a very large and wealthy city was once here situated, 
Avith very rich mines, the produce of which was once or twice 
a year sent to Spain. At one season, when they were making 
extraordinary preparations for the transporting the precious 
metals, the Indians attacked them, whereupon the miners 
buried their treasures, worth fifty millions, and left the city 
together; but they were all killed except two, who went to 
Mexico, giving the particulars of the affair and soliciting aid 
to return. But the distance being so great and the Indians 
so numerous, nobody would advance, and the thing was drop- 
ped. One of the two went to New Orleans, then under the 
dominion of Spain, raised five hundred men, and started by 
way of the Sabine, but was never heard of afterward. So 
far the report. Within the last few years, several Americans 
and Frenchmen have visited the place ; and, although they 
have not found the treasure, they certify at least to the ex- 
istence of an aqueduct, about ten miles in length, to the still 
standing walls of several churches, the sculptures of the 
Spanish coat of arms, and to many spacious pits, supposed to 
be silver-mines. It was, no doubt, a Spanish mining town, 
and it is not unlikely that it was destroyed in -1680, in the 
general successful insurrection of the Indians in New Mexico 
against the Spaniards. Dr. Samuel G. Morton, in a late 
17 



194 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

pamphlet, suggests tlie probability that it was originally an 
old Indian city, into which the Spaniards, as in several other 
instances, had intruded themselves, and subsequently aban- 
doned it. Further investigation, it is to be hoped, will clear 
up this point. 

Here are decidedly too many coincidences to be purely acci- 
dental and meaningless ! Prescott mentions the fact that the 
quantities of gold found in the possession of the Mexicans 
by Cortez, are by no means accounted for, in the probable or 
even possible productiveness of any of the known mines of 
Mexico at the present day. How, then, is this great wealth 
to be accounted for ? We think we have shown. It came, 
mostly, from New Mexico and the mysterious regions of the 
Gila and Colorado ; and since this massacre of the Spaniards 
by the first, and tlie utter baffling of their search by the 
latter, these niines have been as a sealed book. But it will 
no longer contmue to be sealed, when American enterprise 
shall have passed over these buried treasures. 

But hear what is said by yet other historians, of the seem- 
ingly incalculable quantities of gold obtained by the Spanish 
conquest of Old and New Mexico, and no reader can be at 
a loss to account for the European prosperity and predominat- 
ing insolence of the Catholic Church of this period, any more 
than he will find the insatiable cravings of the earlier Jesuit 
missionaries on the north, a difficult riddle to solve. 

We shall merely quote a single passage from Prescott, the 
historian of the Conquest, in confirmation of the above, and 
conclude this branch of our subject. 

In a few weeks most of them returned, bringing back 
large quantities of gold and silver plate, rich stuffs, and the 
various commodities in whicli the taxes were usually paid. 

To this store Montezuma added, on his own account, the 
treasure of Axayacatl, previously noticed, some parts of which 
had been already given to tlie Spaniards. It was the fruit 
of long and careful hoarding — of extortion, it may be — by a 
prince who little dreamed of its final destination. When 
brought into the quarters, the gold alone was sufficient to 
make three heaps. It consisted partly of native grains ; 
part had been melted into bars ; but the greatest portion was 
in utensils, and various kinds of ornaments and curious toys, 
togetlier with imitations of birds, insects, or flowers, executed 



" Sam : ^^ or, the History of Mystery. 195 

with uncommon truth and delicacy. There were, also, quan- 
tities of collars, bracelets, wands, fans, and other trinkets, 
in which the gold and feather-work were richly powdered with 
pearls and precious stones. Many of the articles were even 
more admirable for the workmanship than for the value of 
the materials ; such, indeed — if we may take the report of 
Cortez to one who would himself have soon an opportunity 
to judge of its veracity, and whom it would not be safe to 
trifle with — as no monarch in Europe could boast in his 
dominions ! 

" Magnificent as it was, Montezuma expressed his regret 
that the treasure was no larger. But he had diminished it, 
he said, by his former gifts to the white men. ' Take it,' 
he added, ' Malinche, and let it be recorded in your annals, 
that Montezuma sent this present to your master.' " 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Alas Poor Mexico ! — Marquette and Joliet — La Salle — His pretended retire- 
ment from the Order of Jesus — His Fur Monopoly — He Descends the 
Mississippi to its mouth — His Death — Remarks — Commencement of the 
Second Intercolonial War. 

Poor Mexico! delivered over to tlie tender mercies of 
Catholic "Missionary effort/' how hast thou thriven? how 
grown apace in godliness and gold — in temporal and spiritual 
prosperity? Whither fled the god-born line of Moteuczoma, 
the far descended from the imperial loins of the Child of the 
Sun — Acamapitzin (he who has reeds in his fist), the first king 
of the rush-floated colony who had founded the empire of Mex- 
ico ? Whither vanished the splendors of that haughty line ? 
where those floating gardens, concerning the boundless mag- 
nificence and extent of which Cortez writes to Charles V, his 
master, that not all the royal gardens of Europe can aff'ord a 
comparison of their grandeur ? Where the huge temples to 
the God of Fire, with their myriad simple votaries to a strange 
but bloody creed? their splendid festivals of flowers, and 
dance, and feast, which made the round of the abundant year? 
Where the innumerable cities, hewn from huge blocks of 
stone, or piled as solidly from the imperishable sun-burnt 
bricks? Where the prodigious aqueducts and endless cause- 
ways which far surpassed the glories of old Eome ? Where 
the mighty treasures of gold and silver — of priceless gems 
and arts as priceless ? Where the pictured histories which, 
preserving the ancient story of a New World in graphic 
forms, was the rightful property of mankind? 

"Where are these archives ?'' thunders "Sam." "Where 
are these treasures? Where these precious gems and more 
precious arts ? Where the mighty " Ways " — these fast-built 
am 



'' Sam:'^ or the History of Mystery. 197 

cities — these simple and happy millions, making merry 
amid peaceful abundance? Where the lost architecture? 
Where the ghosts of my majestic brothers, the Moteuczoma ?" 

" Sent to Purgatory, because they have not paid for masses 
enough yet to buy their way out," echoes a sepulchral 
answer from the tumbled ruins of fallen, desolate and rav- 
ished empire ! Mexico is no more ; she is but a myth, a 
fragment of the past ; she has been " conserved " and con- 
verted by the Catholic Church ! What more can be said ? 
Amen. But to return to our proposed survey of the move- 
ments of the French Jesuits toward the South, of which 
La Salle is the principal hero. 

The Jesuit Marquette had previously explored, in company 
with Joliet, a French trader, through the Wisconsin river, 
the upper waters of the Mississippi, as far as the mouth of 
the Arkansas, but were turned back from that point by the 
reports of dangerous and hostile tribes below. The discov- 
eries of Marquette amounted to little more than convicting 
the heretofore entertained theory that the Mississippi dis- 
charged itself into the Chesapeake Bay instead of the Gulf 
of Mexico. 

Among other adventurers who had passed over to New 
France since its transfer to the French West India Com- 
pany, was the young La Salle, a native of Rouen, educated 
as a Jesuit, but who w" ' +o Canada to seek his fortune by 
discovering an over-land pa,.jage to China and Japan. After 
giving proofs of sagacious activity by explorations in Lakes 
Ontario and Erie, he had returned to France, and had ob- 
tained there from the king, to whom Canada had reverted 
since the recent dissolution of the West India Company, the 
grant of Fort Frontenac, a post at the outlet of Ontario, on 
the spot where Kingston now stands, built three years before 
by the Count de Frontenac, who had succeeded at that time 
to the office of Governor-General. On condition of keeping 
up that post, La Salle received the grant of a wide circuit 
of the neighboring country, and an exclusive right of trade 
with the Iroquois, as a check upon whom the fort had been 
built. But his ardent and restless disposition was not thus 
to be satisfied. Fired by reports of the recently discovered 
great river of the West, while Virginia was distracted by 
Bacon's insurrection, and New England yet smarting under 



198 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

the effects of Philip's war, La Salle left his fur trade, his 
fields, his cattle, his vessels and his Indian dependents at 
Fort Frontenac, and, repairing to France a second time, 
obtained a royal commission for perfecting the discovery of 
the Mississippi, and, at the same time, a monopoly of the trade 
in buffalo skins, which seemed likely to prove the chief staple 
of that region. 

Thus successful in his mission, La Salle returned to Fort 
Frontenac with men and stores to prosecute his enterprise, 
accompanied by the Chevalier Tonti, an Italian soldier, who 
acted as his lieutenant. Before winter, he ascended Lake 
Ontario, entered the Niagara, and passing round the falls, 
selected a spot at the foot of Lake Erie, not far from the 
present site of Buff'alo, where he commenced building the 
" Griffin,'^ a bark of sixty tons. This bark, in the course of 
the next summer, was equipped with sails and cordage 
brought from Fort Frontenac, and in the autumn, first of 
civilized vessels, she plowed her way up Lake Erie, bearing 
La Salle, Tonti, the Fleming Hennepin, and several other 
friars of the Kecollect order. Sixty sailors, boatmen, hunt- 
ers and soldiers made up the company. Having entered 
Detroit, *' the strait '^ or river at the head of Lake Erie, 
they passed through it into that limpid sheet of water, to 
which La Salle gave the characteristic name of St. Clair. 
Hence they ascended by a second strait into Lake Huron, 
and through the length of that great lake, by the Straits 
of Mackinaw, into Lake Michigan, whence they passed into 
Green Bay, and, after a voyage of twenty days, cast anchor 
at its head, thus first tracing a passage now fast becoming 
one of the great highways of commerce. 

The Griffin was sent back with a rich lading of furs, 
under orders to return with provisions and supplies, to be 
conveyed to the head of Lake Michigan ; but, unfortunately, 
she was shipwrecked on her homeward passage. La Salle 
and his company proceeded, meanwhile, in birch-bark canoes, 
up Lake Michigan, to the mouth of the St. Joseph's, where 
already there was a Jesuit mission. Here they built a fort 
called the Post of the Miamis, the name by which the river 
was then known. La Salle, with most of his people, pres- 
ently crossed to a branch of the Illinois, down which they 
descended into the main stream, on whose banks, below 



" Sam:^' or, the History of Mystery. 199 

Peoria, tliev built a second fort, called Orevecoeur (Heart- 
break), to signify their disappointment at the non-arrival of 
the Griffin, of which nothino- had vet been heard. 
• To hasten or replace the necessary supplies, the ardent 
and determined La Salle set off on foot, with onlv three 
attendants, and, following the dividing ridge which separates 
the tributaries of the lakes from those of the Ohio, he made 
his way back again to Fort Frontenac, where he found his 
affairs in the greatest confusion, himself reported dead, and 
his property seized by his creditors. But, by the Governor's 
aid, he made arrangements which enabled him to continue 
the prosecution of his enterprise. 

During La Salle's absence, in obedience to orders previ- 
ously given, Dacan and Hennepin descended the Illinois to 
the Mississippi, and, turning northward, explored that river 
as high up as the Falls of St. Anthony. On their way back 
they entered the Wisconsin, and, by the Fox river, passed 
to Green Bay; whence Hennepin returned to Quebec and to 
France, where he wrote and published an account of his 
travels. 

Tonti, meanwhile, attacked by the Iroquois, who had made 
a sudden onslaup'ht on the Illinois villao-es, fled also to Green 
Bay ; and, when La Salle returned the next autumn with 
recruits and supplies, he found Forts Miami and Crevecoeur 
deserted. Having built a new fort in the country of the 
Illinois, which he called St. Louis, with indefatigable energy 
he returned again to Frontenac, encountering Tonti on his 
way ; and, having collected a new company, came back the 
same vear to the Illinois, and durino^ the winter built and 
rigo'ed a small baro;e, in which, at leno^th, he descended to the 
gulf. Formal possession of the mouth of the river was cere- 
moniously taken for the King of France. The country on 
the banks of the Mississippi received the name of Louisiana, 
in honor of Louis XIV, then at the hight of his power and 
reputation ; but the attempt to fix upon the river itself the 
name of Colbert did not succeed. 

Having made his way back to Quebec, leaving Tonti in 
command at Fort St. Louis, La Salle returned a third time 
t-o France, whither the news of his discovery had preceded 
him, and liad excited great expectations. In spite pf repre- 
sentations from Canada by his enemies, of whom his harsh 



200 " Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 

and overbearing temper made liim many, lie was presently 
furnished with a frigate and three other ships, on hoard of 
which embarked five priests, twelve gentlemen, fifty soldiers, 
a number of hired mechanics, and a small body of volunteer, 
agricultural emigrants, well furnished with tools and pro- 
visions ; in all two hundred and eighty persons, designed to 
plant a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. 

Informed of this intended enterprise, Tonti, with twenty 
Canadians and thirty Indians, descended from Fort St. Louis 
to meet his old commander. But La Salle's vessels missed 
the entrance to the Mississippi, passed to the westward, and 
after a vain search for the river's mouth, landed their feeble 
and dispirited company at some undetermined spot on the 
coast of Texas. A fort was built and named St. Louis. La 
Salle, with characteristic activity, in the vain hope of finding 
the Mississippi, penetrated and explored the surrounding 
country. No succors came from France ; the only vessel left 
with the colonists was wrecked ; victims to the climate, to 
home-sickness, and despair, they were presently reduced to 
thirty-six persons. In this extremity. La Salle set off" with 
sixteen men, determined to reach Canada by land ; but, after 
three months' wanderings, he was murdered by two mutin- 
ous companions. The murderers were themselves murdered ; 
some of the men joined the Indians ; finally, five of them 
reached a point at the mouth of the Arkansas, where Tonti, 
returning disappointed from the gulf, had established a little 
post. With the Indians nearest the mouth of the Mississippi 
Tonti left a letter to La Salle, which they faithfully pre- 
served for fourteen years, and delivered to the first French- 
men who made their appearance. 

The twenty men left by La Salle at Fort St. Louis 
obscurely perished, and even the site of the fort passed into 
oblivion. Yet France in after times claimed the region thus 
transiently occupied as a part of Louisiana. The same claim 
was revived more than a century afterward on behalf of the 
United States, to which Louisiana had been transferred by 
purchase. 

This is Hildreth's account of La Salle and his career. 
But it may be as well to specify, in commenting upon this 
narrative, that Bancroft takes good care to mention that " La 
Salle being of a good family, he had renounced his inherit- 



" Sam : " OR, THE History of Mystery. 201 

ance by entering the seminary of the Jesuits. After profit- 
ing by the discipline of their schools, and obtaining their 
praise for purity and diligence, he had taken his discharge 
from the fraternity ; and, with no companions but poverty/ and 
a boundless spirit of enterprise, about the year 1667, when 
the attention of all France was directed toward Canada, 
the young adventurer embarked for fame and fortune in 
New France." Now any one, who has carefully read our 
exposition of the principles of the organization of Loyola's 
Order, will understand how much this " taken his discharge " 
amounts to in reality. It means nothing more than that La 
Salle, at the urgency of his own adventurous spirit and 
probable request, had been transferred to some one of the many 
secret grades of the Order, which included not only women 
and Knights, but men of all ranks and occupations ; he be- 
came, in a word, one of the '' silent members,'' who, released 
from all ecclesiastical functions, outwardly constituted the 
most formidable agents of the Order. No better evidence 
of this could be offered than that his first effort was to obtain, 
in his own name, the coveted monopoly of the Fur Trade, 
which the missionaries proper have yet been unable wholly to 
absorb. But who can doubt that La Salle was virtually as 
good a Jesuit still — with that irrevocable vow of poverty 
upon his soul — as the saintly Marquette, or any avowed dig- 
nitary of the Order ? La Salle still loved adventure much — 
but, as in duty bound — the Order more. It must be remem- 
bered that this vow of poverty, once taken, was retrospective, 
and as well forever, prospective, so that little good must his 
Fur Trade monopoly have ever done the poor adventurer — so 
soon as substantiated, it must have gone into the hands of 
the Order, whose agent in trust he was. 

But thus it has ever been with those historical oracles 
whose brains and sympathies are so magnificently capacious 
that, to be merely Protestant, and tell a straight-forward 
truth plainly about a Body so revered for learning as this of the 
Jesuits, seems simply plebeian ! Faugh ! the contrast of the 
cool manner in which Hildreth disposes of this question may 
be remembered in the quotation given above. But this ex- 
ploration of La Salle, though not immediately successful, 
constituted the future basis of French Imperial claims and 
Jesuit encroachments on the South ; and we shall see too, 



202 *' Sam : '^ or, the History or Mystery. 

even so early as during the progress of the third intercolo- 
nial war, they began to make themselves felt through their 
savage allies in that quarter. Hildreth thus relates the 
opening of this new war between the bloody partisans of 
Jesuitism and the Protestant colonies : 

At the close of the late war, there had remained in the 
whole of Maine and Sagadahoc only four inhabited towns. 
Others had been reoccupied, and industry was resuming its 
course, when the breaking out of the new war with France 
excited new apprehensions. Earnest efforts were made to 
keep the Eastern Indians quiet. Dudley undertook a pro- 
gress as far east as Pemaquid to renew the treaties. But a 
band of unprincipled colonists presently attacked and plun- 
dered the half-breed son of the Baron Castin, who dwelt on 
the Penobscot, and had succeeded there to some share of his 
father's influence. In consequence of this outrage, before 
long hostilities were renewed. (1703.) 

The broken remnants of those Eastern tribes, whose 
vicinity to the English had exposed them most, were collected 
by the French, and established in two villages, Becancour 
and St. Francis, on two rivers of the same names, flowing 
from the south into the St. Lawrence. Here they had chapels 
and priests. Religious zeal and the remembrance of exile 
inflamed their natural aptitude for war. They were always 
ready for expeditions against the frontiers of New England, 
against which, in consequence of the truce with the Five 
Nations, the whole force of Canada was now directed. (1704.) 

With two hundred Canadians and a hundred and fifty In- 
dians, Hertelle de Rouville, descending along the Connecticut, 
approached Deerfield, then the northwestern frontier town 
of New England. Like the other frontier villages, it was 
inclosed by a palisade ; but the sentinels slept, and high 
snow-drifts piled against the inclosure made entrance easy. 
Why repeat a story of monotonous horrors ? The ^'illage 
was burned ; forty-seven of the inhabitants were slain ; the 
minister and his family, with upward of a hundred others, 
were carried into captivity. Dread and terror seized the in- 
habitants of Massachusetts. The whole of their extended 
northern frontier was liable to similar attacks. They were 
exposed alone to the whole brunt of the war. A reward of 
g66 was offered for Indian prisoners under ten years of age, 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 203 

and twice as much for older prisoners, or for scalps — premi- 
ums afterward variously modified and considerably increased. 
Thus stimulated, the colonial rangers were soon able to rival, 
and presently to surpass, the Indians in the endurance of 
cold and fatigue, and to follow up a trail with equal sagacity. 
Yet so shv and scattered were these lurkino- enemies, and so 
skilled in all the arts of that skulking warfare which they 
practiced, that each Indian scalp taken during this war was 
estimated to have cost the colony upward of .£1000, ^3333. 
The barbarizino; influence of such a struo;o;le was even more 
to be deprecated than its cost and its miseries. Some of the 
Connecticut Indians w^ere emplo3'ed as auxiliaries, but they 
seemed to have lost their warlike spirit. 

The veteran Church, so soon as he heard of the burning 
of Deerfield, mounted his horse and rode seventy miles to 
offer his services to Governor Dudley. 

Next year the Indian ravages became more alarming than 
ever. The very neighborhood of Boston was threatened. 
Hertelle de Kouville, again descended from Canada, this time 
by the valley of the Merrimac, attacked Haverhill, the fron- 
tier town on that river, scarcely yet recovered from the rav- 
ages of the former war. Having piously prayed together, De 
Kouville and his Tiidians rushed into the town about an hour 
before sunrise. The houses were plundered and set on fire ; 
forty or fifty of the inhabitants were slain, some of them per- 
ishing in the flames of the houses; as many more, taken 
prisoners, were carried off to Canada. Hotly pursued from 
the neighboring towns, the assailants were obliged to fight 
shortly after leaving Haverhill, j^et, with the loss of some of 
their prisoners, they succeeded in making good their retreat. 

Alarmed at this new specimen of French and Indian enter- 
prise, the General Court of Massachusetts called the queen's 
attention to the "consuming war" in which they had been 
engaged, now little short of twenty years. They begged her 
commands to the Mohawks to fall upon the French, and her 
assistance to conquer Canada and Acadie. 

Vetch, a Boston merchant, one of the late commissioners to 
Quebec to treat for the exchange of prisoners, who had taken 
that opportunity to make soundings of the channel of the St. 
Lawrence, was sent to England to press this request. He 
came back with the promise of a fleet and army, news which, 



204 "Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

in spite of the opposition of tlie traders of Albany, who car- 
ried on a gainful commerce with Canada, excited in New York 
as well as New England, the greatest enthusiasm. Ingolsby, 
lieutenant-governor of New York, took care to keep the 
Assembly in good humor by resigning into their hands the 
appointment of officers, and the regulation, by a committee, 
of the commissary department. Five hundred men were 
raised ; provisions were promised for the troops of the other 
colonies expected to co-operate ; and bills of credit, for the first 
time in New York, were issued to pay the expense. To pro- 
vide means for equipping their quotas, Connecticut and New 
Jersey, equally zealous, now also issued their first paper 
money. 

This enthusiasm did not extend to Pennsylvania. Called 
upon by Governor Gookin to contribute a hundred and fifty 
soldiers, the Quaker Legislature protested, "with all humili- 
ty," that "they could not, in conscience, provide money to 
hire men to kill each other." Out of their dutiful attach- 
ment to the queen, in spite of their scruples, they tendered 
her a present of .£500 ; but this pittance Gookin refused to 
accept. 

The plan of campaign devised twenty years before by 
Leisler and Phipps was now again revived. The four eastern 
clans of the Iroquois had been persuaded to raise the 
hatchet. The quotas of Connecticut, New York, and New 
Jersey, with four independent companies of a hundred men 
each, the regular garrison of New York, amounting in the 
whole to one thousand five hundred men, were assembled at 
Wood Creek, near the head of Lake Champlain, for an attack 
on Montreal. The command of these troops was given by the 
contributing Assemblies to Nicholson, bred an army officer, 
an old official, a man of very active disposition, whom we have 
seen successively governor of New York, of Maryland, and of 
Virginia, and whose former zeal in urging a grant by Vir- 
ginia for the defense of New York was now gratefully re- 
membered. 

Another army of twelve hundred men, the quotas of Mas- 
sachusetts, New Hampshire, and Ehode Island, destined to 
operate against Quebec, anxiously awaited at Boston the 
arrival of the promised British fleet. But new disasters in 
Spain again diverted this expected aid ; and all these expen- 



'*Sam:'^ or, the History op Mystery. 205 

sive preparations, by far the greatest yet made in the British 
colonies, fell fruitless to the ground. 

The governors of the colonies concerned in this enterprise, 
met at Boston, and Nicholson and Vetch carried to England 
their solicitations and complaints. Schuyler, of Albany, who 
exercised a great influence over the Mohawks, imitated the 
policy of the governor of Canada, by taking with him to Eng- 
land five Mohawk warriors. Tricked out in scarlet cloaks, 
borrowed from the wardrobe of a London theater, these sav- 
ages attracted a large share of public attention. The 
"Tatler'^ and " Spectator," then in the course of publication, 
make several allusions to them. 

Nicholson and Vetch returned the next summer with two 
ships of war and five hundred marines. Connecticut and 
New Hampshire each raised a regiment ; two regiments were 
contributed by Massachusetts ; and Nicholson and Vetch, Avith 
twenty New England transports, sailed to attack Port Eoyal. 
The French garrison, feeble and mutinous, surrendered as 
soon as the siege was formed. By the terms of the capitula- 
tion, the inhabitants within a circuit of three miles, npon 
taking an oath of allegiance to England, were to be protected 
for two years, and were to have that period to dispose of their 
property. The miserable inhabitants of the other districts 
in vain solicited the same terms. Tlrey were treated as pris- 
oners at discretion ; their property was plundered ; it was 
even proposed to drive them from their homes, " unless they 
would turn Protestants." A message was sent to the gov- 
ernor of Canada, that if he did not put a stop to the Indian 
parties against the frontiers of New England, any cruelties 
which they might inflict, should be retorted on the unhappy 
Acadians. Such conduct was little calculated to secure quiet 
possession of the province ; and Vetch, left at Port Koyal with 
four hundred men, soon found himself invested by the Aca- 
dians and the Indians. 

Aid from England having been solicited by the colonies in 
this war, that which the AVhigs consistently refused, had been, 
to the sudden surprise of the petitioners, granted by the new 
Tory administration. A large fleet and army was dispatched 
against Canada, under the command of General Hill and 
Sir Hovenden Walker. Hildreth says : 



206 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

Within a fortnight after Nicholson had given the first 
notice of what was intended, a fleet of fifteen ships of war, 
-with forty transports, bringing five veteran regiments of 
Marlborough's army, arrived at Boston. Here they were 
detained upward of a month, waiting for provisions and the 
colonial auxiliaries. The want of notice caused some inevi- 
table delay; but the northern colonies exerted themselves 
with remarkable promptitude and vigor. The credit of 
the English treasury, broken down by a long and expensive 
war, was so low at Boston, that nobody would purchase bills 
upon it without an indorsement, which Massachusetts fur- 
nished in the shape of bills of credit to the amount of 
X40,000, advanced to the merchants who supplied provisions 
to the fleet. After a delay, of which the officers loudly com- 
plained, the ships sailed at last with seven thousand men on 
board, half regulars and half provincials. 

New York issued <£ 10,000 in bills of credit to pay the 
expense of her share of the enterprise, taking care, however, 
to deposit the money in the hands of special commissioners. 
Pennsylvania, under the name of a present to the queen, 
contributed <£2,000, but none of the colonies further south 
seemed to have taken any interest in the matter. Some 
fifteen hundred troops, the quotas of Connecticut, New York, 
and New Jersey, again placed under the command of Nichol- 
son, assembled at Albany, for an attack on Montreal simul- 
taneously with that on Quebec, and Nicholson's camp was 
presently joined by eight hundred warriors of the Five Na- 
tions. But the advance was cut short by news of the failure 
of the expedition by sea. 

As the fleet was proceeding up the St. Lawrence during 
a dark and stormy night, through the obstinacy and negli- 
gence of Admiral AValker, eight transports were wrecked, 
and near a thousand men perished. Discouraged at this 
disaster, the Admiral turned about, and, sending home the 
colonial transports, sailed direct for England, not even stop- 
ping by the way, as his instructions had indicated, to attack 
the French posts in Newfoundland. The British officers con- 
cerned in the expedition, attempted to shift off" on the col- 
onists the blame of this failure. They alleged * the interest- 
edness, the ill-nature, and sourness of these people, whose 
hypocrisy and canting are insupportable.' The indignant 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 207 

colonists, suspicious of the Tory ministry, believed that the 
whole enterprise was a scheme meant to fail, and specially 
designed for their disgrace and impoverishment. Harley, 
having quarreled with his colleagues, denounced it to the 
House of Commons as a job intended to put £20,000 into 
the pockets of St. John and Harcourt. Nowhere was the 
failure of this enterprise more felt than in New York. A 
war with the Five Nations was even apprehended. That 
confederacy showed a strong disposition to go over to the 
French." 

That " the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the faith " 
worked well now. The Jesuits had at last obtained a hold 
upon the nations composing the League of the Iroquois, 
which had, as yet, proved the sole protectors of the early 
colonists on the lakes. There was an incidental war with 
the Tuscaroras in the meantime, against the G-erman emi- 
grants of North Carolina principally. Hear Hildreth's 
account : 

The expedition against Norridgewock, which the Gover- 
nor had delayed, but afterward, on the remonstrance of the 
court, had sent forward, was not successful in seizing Rasles ; 
but his papers, which fell into the hands of the assailants, 
who pillaged the church and the missionary's house, strength- 
ened suspicions that the Indians were encouraged by Cana- 
dian support. The Indians retorted the attack on Norridge- 
wock by burning Brunswick, a new village recently established 
on the Androscoggin. The tribes of Nova Scotia, also, joined 
in the war. At the Gut of Canso they seized seventeen fish- 
ing vessels belonging to Massachusetts, several of w^hich, 
however, were presently recovered, with severe loss to the 
Indian captors. 

When the General Court came together, new disputes 
arose between the governor and the House as to the conduct 
of the war, of which the representatives sought to engross 
the entire management. Disgusted by the opposition of an 
Assembly " more fit," as he thought, " for the affairs of farm- 
ing than for the duty of legislators," Shute had secretly 
obtained leave to return home; and, without giving any 
intimation of his purposes, he suddenly left the province. 
The administration, by his departure, passed into the hands 



208 " Sam :'' or, the History of Mystery. 

of Diimmer, the lieutenant-governor, wlio remained at the 
head of affairs for the next six years. 

The General Court soon accommodated with Dummer the 
quarrel which Shute had left on his hands. He yielded to 
some of their demands, and they abandoned others. The 
Indian war proved expensive and annoying, and large issues 
of paper money became necessary to carry it on. 

Connecticut, applied to for aid against the Indians, pro- 
fessed scruples as to the justice of the war, and begged 
Massachusetts to take care lest innocent blood were shed. 
These scruples were presently quieted, and Connecticut fur- 
nished the quota asked for. Attempts repeatedly made to 
engage the assistance of the Mohawks were less successful. 
They not only refused to take up the hatchet, but, what was 
still more unpalatable, they advised JMassachusetts, as a sure 
means of peace, to restore the Indian lands and prisoners. 

The attacks of the Indians extended along the whole 
northern frontier as far west as Connecticut river. ■ To cover 
the towns in that valley, Fort Dummer was presently erected, 
on the site of what is now Brattleborougli, the oldest English 
settlement within the limits of the present State of Vermont. 

Having seized an armed schooner in one of the eastern 
harbors, a party of Indians cruised along the coast, and 
captured no less than seven vessels. It was deemed neces- 
sary to strike some decisive blow. Norridgewock was sur- 
prised by a second expedition ; Easles was slain, with some 
thirty of his Indian disciples; the sacred vessels and "the 
adorable body of Jesus Christ '' were scoffingly profaned ; 
the chapel was pillaged and burned, and the village broken 
up. 

The premium on scalps was raised to <£100, payable, how- 
ever, in the depreciated currency. Love we 11, a noted partisan, 
surprised, near the head of Salmon Falls river, ten Indians 
asleep round a fire. He killed them all, and marched in 
triumph to Dover, with their scalps hooped and elevated on 
poles. In a second expedition he was less successful. Near 
the head of the Saco, on the margin of a pond, he fell into 
an Indian ambush, and was slain at the first fire, with eiglit . 
of his men. The rest defended themselves bravely through 
a whole day's fight, repulsed the Indians, and made good 
their retreat. 



" Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 209 

Embassadors, meanwhile, were sent to Canada to remon- 
strate against the countenance given there to the hostile In- 
dians ; and an application was made to the king, to compel 
the neighboring colonies and the Mohawks to join in the war. 
The Board of Trade inclined to favor this request ; but, already, 
the Penobscots had proposed a peace, which the colonists 
were very glad to accept ; and the Norridgewocks presently 
came into it. Judicious measures were taken to protect the 
Indians against the extortion and villainy of private traders, 
by the establishment of public trading-houses to supply them 
with goods at cost. By this means, peace was preserved for 
many years, and the settlements in Maine and New Hamp- 
shire extended without interruption. 

The complicated designs of the French Jesuits assume an 
aspect of mystery and entanglement, which it does not com- 
port with our present purpose to unravel. We will let the 
plain historic character of the period tell for itself in the 
language of Hildreth. He says : 

Though the progress of New France, as compared with 
that of the British colonies, was but slow and inconsiderable, 
the French still entertained the grand project of appropriating 
the whole of that vast western valley from the great lakes 
to the Gulf of Mexico. The Iroquois were no longer hostile ; 
and, if the missionary spirit was dying out, it had been suc- 
ceeded by a mercantile spirit hardly less energetic and deter- 
mined. The French fur traders ranged the whole west ; the 
Foxes, the only hostile tribe on the upper lakes, had been 
chastised and driven from Green Bay. By the treaty of 
Utrecht, the traffic with the western Indians was equally 
open to the English traders ; but it still remained, for the 
most part, in the hands of tlie French, constituting, indeed, 
almost the sole resource of Canada. The lands along the 
banks of the St. Lawrence had been granted in seigniories, 
much like the patroonships of New Netherland. The ten- 
ants who cultivated them, known as habitans, produced little 
more than was necessary for the local consumption. They 
were often, however, better off than the seigneurs, or feudal 
lords, whose rents and feudal rights amounted to little. 
They looked chiefly to public offices or commissions in the 
army and navy as a means of support, and to them, there- 
fore, peace was always distasteful. Bv an edict of Louis XIV, 
18 



210 '' Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

the nobles of Canada had been authorized to engage in com- 
merce without any prejudice to their nobility. The fur trade, 
however, was principally in the hands of the bourgeoisie of 
Quebec and Montreal. The attempts to establish fisheries on 
the shores of the St. Lawrence had failed. Of the vessels 
that took cargoes to New France, some carried coal from 
Cape Breton to Martinique, to be used in boiling sugar ; others 
bought fish in Newfoundland ; but many returned in ballast. 
Notwithstanding objections in France, leave had been granted 
to establish linen manufactures in Canada, and coarse linens 
were now produced sufiicient for the local demand. (1728.) 

The administration of Canadian affairs was vested in the 
governor-general, the intendant, and a supreme council. The 
bishop named all the curates. The custom of Paris, the law 
of New France, under the conservative hands of the English, 
has preserved, like the Koman-Dutch code in British Guiana, 
authority in America loug after having lost it in Europe. 
The population of Canada numbered at this time about thirty 
thousand. Quebec was a city of five thousand inhabitants. 
Many of the principal ofiicers of the government were es- 
tablished there, and it could boast, in consequence, a more 
agreeable society than any other American town. 

The " Creoles of Canada," natives, that is, of European 
descent, are described by Charlevoix as " well made, large, 
strong, robust, vigorous, enterprising, brave and indefatigable, 
but unpolished, presumptuous, self-reliant, esteeming them- 
selves above all the nations of the earth, and somewhat lack- 
ing in filial veneration " — a portrait, not of the Canadian 
Creoles merely, but of the whole Creole-American race. The 
Canadians, true to their French origin, though inferior in 
industry, and much less wealthy, understood better than the 
Anglo-Americans the art of makiug themselves happy. 

In Louisiana the French had secured the friendship of the 
Choctaws, a numerous confederacy inhabiting the region from 
the Lower Mississippi eastward to the Alabama, where they 
bordered on the Creeks. (1728.) Surrounded by the Choc- 
taws, and dwelling mostly in a single village in the close 
vicinity of Fort Rosalie, where the Natchez, limited in num- 
bers and extent of territory, but remarkable for a peculiar 
language and their sino-ular religious and social institutions, 
which resembled, in several points, those of the Peruvians of 



" Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 211 

South America. Like the Peruvians, they worshiped the 
sun, from whom, also, their great chief claimed to be de- 
scended. In the great wigwam dedicated to their god, an 
undying fire was kept burning. Beside their principal chief, 
the " Great Sun,'' object of their highest reverence, there 
was a race of inferior chiefs or '' suns," quite distinct from 
the common people. The hierarchical system was complete ; 
but the small number of the Natchez did not allow of any 
of those striking results of combined labor, extorted by re- 
ligious reverence, so remarkable among the Mexicans and 
Peruvians. The Natchez hardly differed in externals from 
the other tribes about them. 

Alarmed at the encroachments of the French at Fort Ros- 
alie, by whom their very village was demanded as a site for 
plantations, the Natchez presently began to grow hostile — a 
feeling stimulated by the Chickasaws, who dwelt northwardly 
up the east bank of the Mississippi, toward the mouth of the 
Ohio, and whose country extended eastward to the lands of 
the Cherokees. 

Thus encouraged, the Natchez fell unexpectedly on the 
French settlement at Fort Rosalie, massacred the men to the 
number of two hundred, and made the women and children 
prisoners. (Nov. 1729.) The negro slaves were not harmed, 
and they presently joined the Indians. The settlers in the 
vicinity of New Orleans amounted, by this time, to near six 
thousand. But a third of that number were slaves, and 
dread of insurrection added to the terrors of Indian war. 

While the people of New Orleans mustered their forces 
and fortified the city, Le Sueur, with a body of seven hundred 
Choctaw warriors, surprised the Natchez feasting over their 
victory, and liberated a part of the prisoners. Forces which 
presently arrived from New Orleans completed the success. 
Some of the discomfited Natchez fled to the Chickasaws, 
others crossed the Mississippi. But they were pursued, and 
only a few made good their escape. The great chief and 
four hundred others, prisoners in the hands of the French, 
were sent to St. Domingo and sold as slaves. (Jan. Feb. 
1730.) 

The English government, anxious to confirm their influ- 
ence over the Cherokees, sent Sir Alexander Cumming to 
Carolina, specially authorized to renew the treaties with that 



212 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

powerful confederacy. Gumming lield several councils in the 
Cherokee country ; and seven of the principal chiefs were 
persuaded to accompany him to England on a visit to their 
" great father," the king. These chiefs signed a treaty with 
the Board of Trade, by which they promised the return of 
all runaway slaves, and were made to acknowledge them- 
selves the subjects of Great Britain. Hence, in the subse- 
quent controversy with the French, a pretense on the part 
of Great Britain, as in the case of the Six Nations, to sove- 
reignty all over the Cherokee territory. 

While these events transpired at the south, the Canadian 
authorities excited apprehensions, by sending a party from 
Montreal up Lake Champlain, to occupy Crown Point, within 
a hundred miles of Albany. The Assembly of New York 
resolved that "this encroachment, if not prevented," would 
prove of " the most pernicious consequence to this and other 
colonies ;" and they sent notice to Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
and Pennsylvania, and applied to England for aid. Massa- 
chusetts entered warmly into their feelings. The Board of 
Trade supported their complaints ; but the judicious policy of 
Walpole was peace. The experience of the last two wars, 
which had saddled England, to so little purpose, with a debt 
of two hundred and fifty millions of dollars, was not yet for- 
gotten, and in spite of the remonstrances of New York and 
New England, the French were allowed quietly to occupy the 
shores of a lake, which, more than a century previous, they 
had been the first to explore. 

Only at this single point, did the French yet approach the 
settlements of the English. There was a short and easy 
communication from Lake Erie with the upper waters of the 
Ohio ; but no attempt was made by the French to occupy 
those waters, of which, indeed, they seem as yet to have 
known but little. The communication between Canada and 
Louisiana was carried on by the distant routes of Green Bay 
and the Wisconsin, Lake Michigan and the Illinois, and, 
presently, by the Maumee and the Wabash, which latter 
river was regarded by the French as the main stream, to 
which the Ohio was but a tributary. Low down the Wabash 
the post of St. Vincent's was presently established. The 
Blue Eidge bounded as yet the back settlements of Pennsyl- 
vania and Virginia. Unknown mountains and unthreaded 



"Sam:'' ok, the History of Mystery. 213 

forests separated, for a few years longer, the rival claimants 
of a continent. 

Yet already the commnnication between Canada and Lou- 
isiana was exposed to obstructions. English traders from 
Carolina, penetrating through the country of the Cherokees, 
reached the distant Chickasaws, by whom, as enemies of the 
French, they were kindly received. These traders, in their 
turn, stimulated the hostility of the Chickasaws, whose 
canoes, filled with warriors, attacked the French boats navi- 
gating backward and forward from the Illinois to New 
Orleans. The Chickasaws even attempted, in conjunction 
with the Enoiish traders, to detach the tribes of the north- 
vrest from the French interest. 

Puritan courage and enterprise seem to have been every- 
where sufficient for the heading and counterbalancing all 
that corpse-like submission and fanaticism of the Jesuit 
could achieve. Protestantism had managed to make good 
friends in advance, as we have seen, of the Cherokees and 
Chickasaws, and opposed this alliance as a barrier upon the 
south nearly equal, in efficiency, to that of the Iroquois on 
the north. But hear further the narrative of the historian, 
upon whose careful labors the biographer of '' Sam " has 
found that no one at this day can so far improve upon. He 
continues : 

The Mississippi Company, utterly disappointed in its 
expectations of profit, and alarmed at the expense of the 
war with the Natchez, resigned Louisiana to the crown, and 
the Canadian Bienville, who had shared the fatigues and 
anxieties of the first settlement, v»'as again commissioned as 
royal Governor ; but the system of administration remained 
in most respects as before. The hostility of the Chickasaws 
seeming to threaten, in the south-west, an obstacle to the 
French dominion similar to that which the Iroquois had for- 
merly presented to the north, it was resolved to attempt the 
conquest of that haughty nation, by a simultaneous attack 
from opposite directions. 

Proceedins: from New Orleans to Mobile with a fleet of 
sixty boats and canoes, Bienville ascended the Tombigbee to 
a fort or trading-house, lately established, two hundred and 
fifty miles up that river. There he was joined by twelve 
hundred Choctaws. The combined force having paddled up 



214 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

tlie Tombigbee to tbe bead of navigation, marched from tbe 
landing now known as Cotton Gin Port against a stronghold 
of the Chickasaws, situated about twenty miles west of it. 
Aware, however, of the approach of their enemies, and en- 
couraged by some English traders, the Chickasaws repulsed 
the attack, and compelled the French and their allies t« an 
inglorious retreat. 

D'Artaguette, who simultaneously descended from the 
Illinois with fifty Frenchmen and a thousand Indians, had 
been still more unlucky. Not hearing anything of the 
other expedition, he too had ventured a separate attack on a 
more northerly fort of the Chickasaws, in which he fell, 
severely wounded. His forces were repulsed and hotly pur- 
sued. Himself and several others, taken prisoners, were 
burned at the stake. In consequence, no doubt, of the 
expense of this war, the ''card money" system which pre- 
vailed in Canada was introduced in Louisiana also. 

Three years after, the whole strength of New France was 
again exerted for the conquest of the Chickasaws. At a 
post established within their country, at that bluflp on the 
Mississippi now the site of the city of Memphis, twelve 
hundred French soldiers were assembled, with twice as many 
Indians and negroes. But the ranks were soon thinned by 
sickness, and the French were glad to purchase peace by 
withdrawing their forces, leaving the Chickasaws still inde- 
pendent and indomitable. 

The process for vacating the charter of Carolina had been 
delayed by the privilege of peerage, enjoyed by several of 
the proprietaries. To bring this to a conclusion, it was pro- 
posed to buy the province, and the bargain for that purpose 
was presently confirmed by act of Parliament. Seven of the 
eight proprietaries relinquished to the crown all their interest 
for the sum of .£17,500, to which were added £5000 more 
for arrears of quit-rents, claimed to the amount of £9000. 
Lord Carteret, the eighth proprietor, surrendered his rights 
of jurisdiction, but chose to retain his interest in the soil, 
his share of which, in the territory north of the Savannah, 
was specially set ofl:' to him next to the Virginia line, which 
had been lately run, and marked as far westward as the 
Blue Ridge. 



"Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 215 

Louisburg, on which the French had spent much money, 
was by far the strongest fort north of the Gulf of Mexico. 
But the prisoners of Canso, carried thither, and afterward 
dismissed on parole, reported the garrison to be weak, and 
the works out of repair. So long as the French held this 
fortress, it was sure to be a source of annoyance to New Eng- 
land, but to wait for British aid to capture it would be tedious 
and uncertain, public attention in Great Britain being much 
engrossed by a threatened invasion. Under these circum- 
stances, Shirley proposed to the General Court of Massachu- 
setts the bold enterprise of a colonial expedition, of which 
Louisburg should be the object. After six days' deliberation 
and two additional messages from the governor, this proposal 
was adopted by a majority of one vote. A circular letter, 
asking aid and co-operation, was sent to all the colonies as far 
south as Pennsylvania. In answer to this application, urged 
by a special messenger from Massachusetts, the Pennsylva- 
nia Assembly, still engaged in a warm controversy with 
Governor Thomas, voted c£4:000 of their currency to purchase 
provisions. The New Jersey Assembly, engaged, like that 
of Pennsylvania, in a violent quarrel with their governor, had 
refused to organize the militia or to vote supplies, unless Mor- 
ris would first consent to all their measures, including a new 
issue of paper money. They furnished, however, ,£2000 
toward the Louisburg expedition, but declined to raise any 
men. The New York Assembl}^ after a long debate, voted 
.£3000 of their currency ; but this seemed to Clinton a nig- 
gardly grant, and he sent, beside, a quantity of provisions 
purchased by private subscription, and ten eighteen-pounders 
from the King's magazine. Connecticut voted five hundred 
men, led by Roger Wolcott, afterward governor, and appoint- 
ed, by stipulation of the Connecticut Assembly, second in 
command of the expedition. Rhode Island and New Hamp- 
shire each raised a regiment of three hundred men ; but the 
Rhode Island troops did not arrive till after Louisburg was 
taken. The chief burden of the enterprise, as was to be 
expected, fell on Massachusetts. In seven weeks an army of 
three thousand two hundred and fifty men was enlisted, trans- 
ports were pressed, and bills of credit were profusely issued 
to pay the expense. Ten armed vessels were provided by 
Massachusetts, and one by each of the other New England 



216 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

colonies. The command in chief was given to William Pep- 
perill, a native of Maine, a wealthy merchant, who had inher- 
ited and augmented a large fortune acquired by his father in 
the fisheries; a popular, enterprising, sagacious man, noted 
for his universal good fortune, but unacquainted with military 
affairs, except as a militia officer. Whitfield, then preaching 
on his third tour throughout the colonies, gave his influence 
in favor of the expedition by suggesting, as a motto for the 
flag of the New Hampshire regiment, " Nil desperandum 
Christo duce^^ — "Nothing is to be despaired of with Christ 
for a leader." The enterprise, under such auspices, assumed 
something of the character of an anti-Catholic crusade. One 
of the chaplains, a disciple of Whitfield, carried a hatchet, 
specially provided to hew down the images in the French 
churches. 

Eleven days after embarking at Boston, the Massachusetts 
armament assembled at Casco, to w^ait there the arrival of 
the Connecticut and Ehode Island quotas, and the melting 
of the ice by which Cape Breton was environed. The New 
Hampshire troops w^re already there ; those from Connecti- 
cut came a few days after. Notice having been sent to Eng- 
land and the West Indies of the intended expedition, Captain 
Warren presently arrived with four ships of war, and, cruising 
before Louisburg, captured several vessels bound thither with 
supplies. Already, before his arrival, the New England 
cruisers had prevented the entry of a French thirty-gun ship. 
As soon as the ice permitted, the troops landed and com- 
menced the siege, but not with much skill, for they had no 
engineers. The artillery was commanded by Gridley, wdio 
served thirty years after in the same capacity in the first 
Massachusetts revolutionary army. Cannon and provisions 
had to be drawn on sledges, by human strength, over morasses 
and rocky hills. Five unsuccessful attacks were made, one 
after another, upon an island battery which protected the 
harbor. In that cold, foggy climate, the troops, very imper- 
fectly provided with tents, suffered severely from sickness, 
and more than a third were unfit for duty. But the French 
garrison was feeble and mutinous, and when the commander 
found that his supplies had been captured, he relieved the 
embarrassment of the besiegers by oftering to capitulate. 
The capitulation included six hundred and fifty regular 



"Sam:^' or, the History of Mystery. 217 

soldiers, and near thirteen hundred effective inhabitants of 
the town, all of whom were to he shipped to France. The 
Island of St. John's presently submitted on the same terms. 
The loss during the siege was less than a hundred and fifty, 
but among those reluctantly detained to garrison the con- 
quered fortress ten times as many perished afterward by 
sickness. In the expedition of Vernon and this against 
Louisburg, perished a large number of the remaining Indians 
of New England, persuaded to enlist as soldiers in the colo- 
nial regiments. 

Some dispute arose as to the relative merits of the land 
and the naval forces, which had been joined during the siege 
by additional ships from England. Pepperell, however, was 
made a baronet, and both he and Shirley were commissioned 
as colonels in the British army. Warren was promoted to 
the rank of rear admiral. The capture of this strong fortress, 
effected in the face of many strong obstacles, shed, indeed, a 
momentary luster over one of the most unsuccessful wars in 
which Britain was ever engaged. It attracted, also, special 
attention to the growing strength and enterprise of the people 
of New England, represented by Warren, in his communica- 
tions to the ministry, as having " the highest notions of the 
rights and liberties of Englishmen; and, indeed, as almost 
Levelers." 

The French, on their side, were not idle. The garrison of 
Cro^Ti Point sent out a detachment, which took the Massachu- 
setts fort at Hoosick, now Williamstown, and presently sur- 
prised and ravaged the settlement recently established at 
Saratoga. Even the counties of Ulster and Orange, on the 
lower Hudson, struck with panic, expected the speedy arrival 
of Canadian and Indian invaders. 

The easy conquest of Louisburg revived the often disap- 
pointed hope of the conquest of Canada. Shirley submitted 
to Newcastle a plan for a colonial army to undertake this 
enterprise. But the Duke of Bedford, then at the head of the 
British marine, took alarm at the idea of 'Hhe independence 
it might create in those provinces, when they shall see within 
themselves so great an army, possessed of so great a countiy 
by right of conquest." The old plan was therefore preferred, 
of sending a fleet and army from England to capture Quebec, 
to be joined at Louisburg by the New England levies, while 
19 



218 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

the forces of other colonies operated in the rear, against 
Montreal. 

Orders were accordingly sent to the colonies to raise 
troops, which the king would pay. Hardly were these 
orders across the Atlantic, when the ministers changed their 
mind ; but, before the countermand arrived, the colonial 
levies were already on foot. In spite of the mortality at 
Louisburg, Massachusetts raised three thousand five hundred 
men, Connecticut raised a thousand, New Hampshire five 
hundred, Ehode Island three hundred. The province of New 
York voted sixteen hundred men. New Jersey five hundred, 
Maryland three hundred, Virginia one hundred. Money was 
voted by the Pennsylvania Assembly for enlisting four 
hundred men. The troops from the southern colonies, and 
those also from Connecticut, assembled at Albany. The 
command, declined by Governor Gouch, of Virginia, was 
assumed by Clinton, of New York. Not only was Clinton 
involved in a violent controversy with the Assembly, but a 
majority of the Council, headed by Delancey, the Chief 
Justice, continued to sit at New York during the Governor's 
absence at xVlbany, and to dispute with him the administra- 
tion of the province. His military command was not less 
embarrassing. The corporation of Albany refused to pro- 
vide quarters for the soldiers ; the bills drawn by Clinton on 
the British treasury failed to purchase provisions ; impress- 
ment was resorted to, but it was not without difficulty that 
the troops were subsisted. 

The office of agent for the Five Nations, hitherto held by 
Major Shuyler's son, had been taken from him by Clinton 
and given to William Johnston, who led a party of Mohawks, 
destined to act in front of the main army. Of Scotch-Irish 
descent, Johnston had established himself some ten or twelve 
years previously on tlie Mohawk river, thirty miles west of 
Albany, at the head of a new frontier settlement, undertaken 
on behalf of his uncle, Admiral Warren, who had married in 
New York, and had thus been led to engage in colonial land 
speculations. A man of coarse but vigorous mind, and great 
bodily strength, Johnston carefully cultivated the good will 
of the Mohawks, with whom he carried on a lucrative traffic. 
He had an Indian wife, or mistress, sister of the afterward 
celebrated Brant; he acknowledged as his own, several 



'' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 219 

half-breed children ; and already had attained, by conformity 
to their customs and by natural aptitude, the same influence 
over the Mohawks possessed in the previous generation by 
Major Schuyler. 

As the British fleet did not make its appearance, fifteen 
hundred of the Massachusetts troops were marched to Albany 
to join Clinton. But attention was soon drawn to matters 
nearer home. Instead of the expected English squadron, a 
French fleet of forty ships of war, with three thousand 
veteran troops on board, had sailed for the American coast, 
exciting a greater alarm throughout New England than had 
been felt since the threatened invasion of 1697. This alarm, 
the non-appearance of the British fleet, and the various dif- 
ficulties encountered on the march, put a stop to the 
advance on Montreal. A body of troops from Canada 
appeared at the head of the Bay of Fundy, and, being 
joined by the French inhabitants there, threatened an attack 
on Annapolis. Boston was thought to be the great object 
of the enemy. To defend it, some ten thousand militia were 
collected, and such addditions were made to the fort, on 
Castle Island, as to render it the strongest British fortress in 
America. The French fleet, shattered by storms and deci- 
mated by a pestilential fever, effected nothing beyond alarm. 
The admiral died, the vice-admiral committed suicide. The 
command then devolved on La Jonquiere, appointed Gov- 
ernor-General of New France as successor to Beauharnois, 
who had held that office for the last twenty years. A 
second storm dispersed the ships, which returned singly to 
France. After the capture of Jonquiere in a second attempt 
to reach Canada, the office of Governor-General devolved on 
La Galissionniere. 

Parliament subsequently reimbursed to the colonies the 
expenses of their futile preparations against Canada, amount- 
ing to <£235,000, or upward of a million of dollars. 

Indian parties from Canada severely harassed the frontier 
of New England. Even the presence of a British squadron 
on the coast was not without embarrassments. Commodore 
Knowles, while lying in Boston harbor, findmg himself short 
of men, sent a press-gang one morning, into the town, which 
seized and carried oft' several of the inhabitants. As soon 
as this violence became known, an infuriated mob assembled, 



220 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

and, finding several oflBcers of the squadron on shore, seized 
them as hostages for their imprisoned fellow-townsmen. Sur- 
rounding the town-house, where the General Court was in 
session, they demanded redress. After a vain attempt to 
appease the tumult, Shirley called out the militia ; hut they 
were very slow to obey. Doubtful of his own safety, he re- 
tired to the castle, whence he wrote to Knowles, representing 
the confusion he had caused, and urging the discharge of the 
persons he had impressed. Knowles offered a body of marines 
to sustain the governor's authority, and threatened to bombard 
the town unless his officers were released. The mob, on the 
other hand, began to question whether the governor's retire- 
ment to the castle did not amount to an abdication. Matters 
assumed a very serious aspect ; and those influential persons 
who had countenanced the tumult, now thought it time to 
interfere for its suppression. The House of Representatives 
resolved to stand by the governor " with their lives and for- 
tunes." The council ordered the release of the officers. The 
inhabitants of Boston, at a town meeting, shifted off" the 
credit of the riot upon " negroes and persons of vile condi- 
tion." The governor was escorted back by the militia; 
Knowles discharged the greater part of the impressed men, 
and presently departed with his squadron. No allusion was 
made, in the course of this affiiir, to the statute of Anne, 
prohibiting impressments in America. That act, indeed, ac- 
cording to the opinion of several English crown lawyers, had 
expired with Queen Anne's war. Shirley, in his letters to 
the Board of Trade, on the subject of this "rebellious insur- 
rection," ascribes " the mobbish turn of a town of twenty 
thousand persons" to its constitution, which devolved the 
management of its aff'airs on " the populace, assembled in 
town meetings." Boston had already attained an amoui^t of 
population at which it remained stationary for the next fifty 
3^ears. (1747.) 

The towns of Suffield, Somers, Enfield, and Woodstock, 
originally settled under Massachusetts grants, and assigned 
to that province in 1713, by the boundary convention with 
Connecticut, finding the rate of taxation in Massachussetts 
enhanced by the late military expenses, applied to Connecti- 
cut to take them into her jurisdiction. They claimed to be 
within the Connecticut charter. They alleged that the 



•' Sam: ^^ OR, THE History of Mystery. 221 

former agreement had never been ratified by the cromi, and 
that Connecticut had received no equivalent for her surrender 
of jurisdiction. This application was listened to with favor. 
Some show, indeed, was made of asking the consent of Mas- 
sachusetts ; but, when that consent was refused, the towns 
were received by Connecticut without it, and to that province 
they have ever since belonged. Massax?husetts threatened 
an appeal to the king in council, but hesitated to prosecute 
it, lest she might lose, as in her former controversy with New 
Hampshire, not only the towns in dispute, but other territory 
also. 

Some liberated prisoners from Martinique, a great resort 
for French cruisers, brought a report to Philadelphia that a 
fleet of privateers, knowing the unfortified ..state of that city, 
and trusting that the Quakers would not fight, intended to 
make a combined expedition up the Delaware. In conse- 
quence of this alarm, fortifications were erected and a mili- 
tary organization adopted in Pennsylvania. The Assembly 
still refused to do anything ; but an associated volunteer 
militia, ten thousand strong, was organized and equipped. 
Money was also raised by lottery to erect batteries for the 
defense of the Delaware, toward which the proprietaries con- 
tributed twelve pieces of cannon. " Plain Truth," a little 
pamphlet written by Franklin, greatly contributed to these 
movements. By twenty years of diligent labor as a printer, 
newspaper publisher and editor, Franklin had acquired a 
handsome property; and, at the age of forty, he now began 
to take an active part in the political affairs of the province, 
being chosen a member of the Assembly, of which, for ten 
years previous, he had acted as clerk. 

A portion of the Quakers were inclinedto justify defensive 
war. Chew, chief justice of Delaware, had been disowned 
by the yearly meeting for avowing that opinion, but it still 
continued to gain ground. The now venerable Logan, who, 
indeed, had never been much of a Quaker, entertained the 
same views ; but increased age and infirmities had withdrawn 
him, for some time, from active participation in affairs. 

The war so inconsiderately begun, through the resolution 
of the British merchants to force a trade with Spanish 
America, after spreading, first to Europe and then to India, 
and adding ^144,000,000, (X30,000,000,) to the British 



222 " Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

national debt, was at last brouglit to a close by the peace of 
Aix la Chapelle. (Oct. 8, 1748.) Notwithstanding a for- 
mer emphatic declaration of the British government, that 
peace never should be made unless the right to navigate the 
Spanish-American seas free from search were conceded, that 
claim, the original pretense for the war, was not even 
alluded to in the treaty. The St. Mary's was fixed as the 
boundary of Florida. Much to the mortification of the peo- 
ple of New England, Cape Breton and the conquered fortress 
of Louisburg were restored to the French, who obtained, in 
addition, the little islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, on the 
south coast of Newfoundland, as stations for their fishermen. 
A new commission was also agreed to for the settlement of 
French and English boundaries in America — a matter left 
unsettled since the treaty of Kyswick. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

Commencement of the final struggle between the French and English for 
the country on the great Lakes and the Mississippi — Fourth Intercolo- 
nial War. 

T\^E come now to the fourth intercolonial war, in which 
Washington, the first incarnation of Sam in moderate earthly 
mould, makes his appearance upon a stage, the drama of 
which is to fill the eye of the world — a drama, of which he 
is to be the central figure. 

We must again o^ii our obligation to our admirable Ameri- 
can historian for the narrative of this war. 

Dr. Thomas Walker, of the council of Virginia, penetrating 
through the mountainous south-eastern regions of that pro- 
vince, had reached and crossed the ridge which separates the 
valley of the Tennessee from the head waters of the more 
northerly tributaries of the Ohio. To that ridge he gave 
the name of Cumberland ^fountains, after the Duke of Cum- 
berland, of the English blood royal, just then very famous 
by his victory over the Pretender, at Culloden. The name 
of Cumberland was also given to one of the rivers flowing 
down the western slope of that ridge. A more northerly 
stream, called by Walker the Louisa, still preserves its abori- 
ginal appellation of KentueJci/, not, however, without con- 
formitv to the English idiom in a retraction of the accent 
from the last to the second syllable. The region entered by 
Walker, full of abrupt and barren mountains, attracted little 
attention. The country about the head of the Ohio seemed 
much more inviting. 

An association of London merchants and Virginia land 
speculators, known as the Ohio Companv, obtained in England, 

(223) 



224 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

sliortly after the peace, a grant of six liundred thousand 
acres of land on the east bank of that river, with exclusive 
privileges of Indian traffic — a grant esteemed an encroach- 
ment by the French, who claimed as theirs, by right of 
discovery and occupation, the whole region watered by the 
tributaries of the Mississippi, (1749.) A counter claim, 
indeed, was set up by the English, in the name of the Six 
Nations, recognized by the treaties of Utrecht and Aix la 
Chapelle as under British protection, whose empire, it was 
pretended, had formerly been carried by conquest over the 
whole eastern portion of the Mississippi Valley, and the basin, 
also, of the lower lakes. In maintenance of these pretensions, 
Colden's '' History of the Five Nations" had recently been 
published. The French, in reply, pointed to their posts, 
many of them of considerable antiquity, more than sixty in 
number, along the great lakes and the waters of the Missis- 
sippi. The missions had declined, but tJie Indian trade con- 
tinued to flourish. At the principal posts were regular 
garrisons, relieved once in six years. Such of the disbanded 
soldiers as chose to remain, beside a grant of land, received 
a cow and a calf, a cock and five hens, an ax, a hoe, a gun, 
with powder and shot, grain for seed, and rations for three 
3^ears. Wives were sent out to them from France, or they 
intermarried with the Indians. The boats from the Illinois 
country, descending annually to New Orleans, carried flour, 
Indian corn, bacon, both of hog and bear, beef and pork, 
buffalo robes, hides and tallow. The downward voyage was 
made in December ; in February the boat returned with 
European goods for consumption and Indian traffic. Tlie 
Indians north west of the Ohio, including the remains of the 
tribes whom the Iroquois had formerly driven from their 
homes on the Ottawa, the Hurons or "Wyandots, the Miamies, 
the Illinois, all rejoiced in the alliance, or recognized the 
authority of the French. As respected the country on the 
upper lakes, the Mississipi, the Illinois, and the Wabash, the 
French title, according to European usage, was complete. 

The country immediately south of Lake Erie, covered with 
dense forests, and with few^ Indian inhabitants, had hitherto, 
in a great measure, been neglected. But the Count de la 
Galissonniere, shortly after assuming office as governor- 
general, had sent De Celeron, with three hundred men, to 



" Sam : '^ or, the History op Mystery. 225 

traverse the country from Detroit east to the mountains, to 
bury, at the most important points, leaden plates with the 
arms of France engraved, to take possession with a formal 
process verbal, and to warn the English traders out of the 
country. 

To secure Nova Scotia, to guard the commerce and fisheries 
of New England, and to offset the restored fortress of Louis- 
burg, the British government hastened to establish at Che- 
bucto the military colony and fort of Halifax, so called after 
the president of the Board of Trade, who took a great in- 
terest in its establishment. During the next twenty-five 
years this fortress cost Great Britain not less than three 
millions of dollars — a striking instance of the expenses of 
modern warlike preparations, equivalent, in fact, to a per- 
petual war. 

Admiral De la Jonquiere having entered upon the govern- 
ment of New France, his predecessor, De la Galissonniere, 
proceeded to Paris as one of the boundary commissioners 
under the late treaty. In two thick quarto volumes of pro- 
tocols, these commissioners vainly attempted to settle what 
had been meant in the treaty of Utrecht by the " ancient 
limits " of Acadie. The English claimed under that appella- 
tion both shores of the Bay of Eundy — indeed, the whole 
region east of the Penobscot. The French, on the other 
hand, sought to restrict the cession of Acadie to the peninsula 
to which the name of Nova Scotia is at present confined, 
claiming the north shore of the Bay of Fundy as a part of 
Canada. Nor did they satisfy themselves with protocols 
only. Troops from Canada established the posts of Gas- 
pareau and Beau Sejour, at the narrowest part of the isth- 
mus, between the waters of the Bay of Fundy and those of 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence — a vicinity in which was planted 
a considerable body of ancient French colonists still warmly 
attached to the French interest. Cornwallis, governor of 
Nova Scotia, wrote pressingly to Massachusetts for aid. Not 
strong enough to dislodge these intruders, he caused two 
opposing forts to be built at Beau Bassin and Minas. A third 
post w^as also established by the French near the mouth of 
the St. John. (1749.) 

Determined also to strengthen their hold on the disputed 
western region, the French enlarged and strengthened their 



226 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

post at Niagara. (1750.) They even obtained leave to 
build a fort and trading house on the borders of the ]\Iohawk 
country. Alarmed for the fidelity of the Six Nations, who 
never had recognized the claim of English dominion, Clinton, 
governor of New York, proposed a new treaty, in which he 
invited all the colonies to participate. (1751.) Only Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut, and South Carolina chose to incur the 
expense. The French built vessels of unusual force at Fort 
Frontenac. They entered into friendly relations with those 
bands of Delawares and Shawanese whom the pressure of 
new settlements in Pennsylvania had lately driven from the 
Susquehanna toward the Ohio, and to whom the operations 
of the Ohio Company, in the establishment of a post and trad- 
ing house at Redstone, now Brownsville, on the Monongahela, 
had given great offense. The Marquis Du Quesne, Jonquiere's 
successor as governor-general, followed up the same policy. 
A band of the Miamies, or Twigties, as the English called 
them, settled at Sandusky, having refused to remove to De- 
troit, and persisting in trade with the English, their village 
was burned. The English traders were seized, and their 
merchandise confiscated. Early the next year, twelve hun- 
dred men from Montreal built a fort at Presque Isle, now 
Erie, on the southern shore of the lake of that name. Cross- 
ing thence to the waters flowing south, they established posts 
at La Boeuf and Venango, the one on French Creek, the other 
on the main stream of the Allegany, which meets the Mo- 
nongahela flowing north, and unites with it to form the Ohio. 
(1753.) 

The Board of Trade reported to the king that, " as the 
French had not the least pretense of right to the territory 
on the Ohio, an important river rising in Pennsylvania and 
running through Virginia, it was matter of wonder what 
such a strange expedition, in time of peace, could mean, un- 
less to complete the object so long in view, of conjoining the 
St. Lawrence with the Mississippi." Lord Holderness, suc- 
cessor to the Duke of Bedford, as Secretary of State, dispatched 
orders to the governors of Pennsylvania and Virginia, to 
repel force by force, " whenever the French were found with- 
in the undoubted limits of their provinces." (1749.) After 
remaining for three years in the hands of Thomas Lee and 
Lewis Burwell, successive presidents of the council, the 



" Sam : " or, the History op Mystery. 227 

government of Virginia had passed to Robert Dinwiddie, as 
lieutenant-governor, a Scotsman of ability, surveyor-general 
of the colonial customs, and previously a counselor, but not pos- 
sessed of that suavity of manners for which Gouch, his pre- 
decessor, had been distinguished. Observing with anxiety 
and alarm the movements of the French, Dinwiddie held a 
treaty with the Indian bands on the Monongahela, from whom 
he purchased permission to build a fort at the junction of that 
river with the Alleghany. He resolved, also to send a mes- 
sage to the nearest French post, to demand explanations, and 
the release and indemnification of the captured traders. As 
bearer of this message he selected George Washington, a 
native of Westmoreland county, on the Potomac, where his 
ancestors had been planters for three generations. The pa- 
ternal inheritance, by the law of primogeniture, having 
passed to his eldest brother, the young Washington, a major 
in the militia, followed the lucrative but laborious profession 
of a land surveyor in the Northern Xeck, now the property 
of Lord Fairfax. Though not yet twenty-two, already he 
gave evidence of that rarest of combinations, a sound judg- 
ment, with courage, enterprise, and capacity for action. 

After a dangerous winter's journey of four hundred miles, 
with only four or five attendants, the greater part of the 
way through uninhabited forests, Washington reached the 
French post at Venango, where he was received with charac- 
teristic politeness. Joncaire, the commander, promised to 
transmit Dinwiddle's message to his superiors in Canada, 
under whose orders he acted ; but the French officers, over 
their cups, made no secret to Washington of the intention 
entertained by the French government permanently to occu- 
py all that country. (1753.) 

During Washington's absence, Dinwiddie applied to the 
Assembly for fmds ; but he found that Body in a very bad 
humor. With the consent of the Board of Trade, a fee had 
recently been imposed on the issue of patents for lands — a 
practice long established in other colonies, but hitherto un- 
known in Virginia. The House of Burgesses paid no atten- 
tion to Dinwiddle's complaint of French encroachments and 
call for money. Wholly engrossed by the affair of the ob- 
noxious fee, they resolved that whosoever paid it, ought to be 
regarded as betraying the rights of the people ; and they 



228 " Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

sent to England, as bearer of tlieir complaints, Peyton Ean- 
dolpli, attorney-general of the province, twenty years after 
president of the Continental Congress, to whom they voted 
a salary of X2,000, out of the provineial funds in the hands 
of the speaker. 

Notwithstanding this disappointment, Dinwiddie enlisted a 
captain's command, and sent them to build a fort at the junc- 
tion of the Alleghany and the Monongahela. The western 
boundary of Pennsylvania was not yet run. It was uncer- 
tain whether the head of the Ohio fell within that province ; 
if not, it was claimed as appertaining to Virginia. 

As soldiers could not be supported without money, Din- 
widdie called on the neighboring colonies for aid, and present- 
ly again summoned the Virginia Assembly. Washington 
had now returned. The designs of the French were obvi- 
ous, and the Assembly granted X10,000 toward the defense 
of the frontiers. A committee of the burgesses was ap- 
pointed to act in concert with the governor in the expenditure 
of this money — an "encroachment on the prerogative," to 
which, from necessity, Dinwiddie reluctantly submitted. 

Urged by Governor Hamilton to take measures to withr 
stand the intrusions of the French, the Assembly of Penn- 
sylvania oftered supplies in paper money. But to this, 
Hamilton, by his instructions, could not assent, at least not 
without a suspending clause of reference to England, to 
which the Assembly would not agree. (1754.) 

Again urged to co-operate with Virginia, the Assembly 
passed a new bill for paper money supplies, which the gover- 
nor again rejected. Some members of the Assembly — and 
the same was presently the case in New York — expressed 
doubts if the crown actually had any claim to the territory 
on which the French were said to be encroaching. Governor 
Glen, of South Carolina, doubted too. But any such doubts 
were regarded by the zealous Dinwiddie as little short of 
treason. In New York also, as well as in Virginia and 
Pennsylvania, internal disputes distracted attention from the 
designs of the French. Clinton had resigned, wearied out 
by ineffectual struggles against Delancey, who had been 
joined, also, by Colden, and wliom the united influence of 
Alexander, Smith, and Johnson, lately raised to the council, 
was not sufficient to overmatch. His successor, Sir Dan vers 



" Sam:" or the History of Mystery. 229 

Osborne, came from England cliarged to rebuke the Assem- 
bly, and to re-establisb the executive authority. His friends 
had obtained for him this appointment, hoping that business 
and a change of scene might enable him to throw off a fit 
of melancholy under which he was laboring. But the hope- 
lessness of the task he had assumed so aggravated his dis- 
order, that, within five days after his arrival, he committed 
suicide. 

It fell to Delancey, as lieutenant-governor, to which dignity 
he had just been raised, to lay Osborne's instructions before 
the Assembly. An address to the king and a representation 
to the Board of Trade, indignantly denied the imputations 
of turbulence and disloyalty ; but all the arts of Delancey 
were exhausted in vain, to move the Assembly from their 
policy of annual votes. The most he could obtain was, that 
money once voted, should be drawn out of the treasury on 
the order of the governor and council, and a promise not to 
interfere with executive matters. 

The government of Maryland had recently been conferred 
on Horatio Sharpe, a military ofiicer ; but a quarrel about 
supplies, similar to that in Pennsylvania, prevented the aid 
which Dinwiddle had asked. 

North Carolina alone, of all the colonies applied to, re- 
sponded promptly, by voting a regiment of four hundred and 
fifty men. The temporary administration of that province 
was held by Michael Eowau, as president of the council, who 
availed himself of this opportunity to consent to a new issue 
of paper money. But these North Carolina troops proved of 
little use. By the time they reached Winchester, in Vir- 
ginia, the greater part had disbanded on some doubts as to 
their pay, the appropriation for that purpose being already 
exhausted. 

A regiment of six hundred men had been enlisted in Vir- 
ginia, of which Frye was appointed Colonel, and Washington 
lieutenant-colonel. To encourage enlistment, Dinwiddle 
promised two hundred thousand acres of land to be divided 
among the oflicers and soldiers. Two independent companies 
from New York, and another from South Carolina were or- 
dered to Virginia to assist in the operations against the 
French. 



230 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

The Virginia troops, on their march to tlie frontier, 
encountered abundance of difficulties. Very little disposition 
was shown to facilitate their progress. It was only by 
impressment that means could be obtained to transport the 
baggage and stores. By slow and toilsome steps, the troops 
made their way to Will's Creek, on the Potomac, where they 
were met by alarming intelligence. The French, under 
Contrecoeur, had descended in force from Venango, and, 
having sent off Dinwiddie's soldiers, who were building a 
fort at the head of the Ohio, they had themselves seized that 
important spot and commenced a fort, which they called Du 
Quesne, after the Governor-General. 

A detachment under Washington hastily sent forwai'd to 
reconnoiter, just before reaching Eedstone, at a place called 
the Great Meadows, encountered a French party, which 
Washington attacked by surprise, and whose commander, 
Jumonville, was killed — the first blood shed in this war. 

By Frye's death, the chief command devolved on Washing- 
ton. He was soon joined by the rest of the troops, and, 
havino; erected a stockade at the Great Meadows, called Fort 
Necessity, pushed on toward Du Quesne. The approach of a 
much superior force under M. de Villier, brother of Jumon- 
ville, obliged him to fall back to Fort Necessity. His troops 
were fatigued, discouraged, and short of provisions ; and, 
after a day's fighting, he agreed to give up the fort, and 
to retire with his arms and baggage. Washington did not 
know French ; his interpreter, a Dutchman, was ignorant or 
treacherous, and the articles of capitulation were made to 
contain an express acknowledgment of the " assassination " 
of Jumonville. Having retired to Will's Creek, Washington's 
troops assisted in the erection of Fort Cumberland, which now 
became the westernmost English post. 

At the same time, with his orders to Virginia and Penn- 
sylvania, Holderness had addressed a circular letter to all the 
colonies, proposing a convention at Albany of committees 
from the several colonial Assemblies, to renew the treaty 
with the Six Nations, whose friendship at this crisis, was of 
great importance. Agreeably to his recommendation. New 
York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the four New England 
colonies, appointed committees. While Washington was 
operating toward the Monongahela, this convention met, 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 231 

and after carefully settling the question of precedence, 
organized itself, with Delancey, of New York, as presiding 
officer. The ill feeling between the Governor and the 
Assembly of Virginia, prevented any representation from 
that colony. 

Having returned from his unavailing mission to Paris, 
Shirley had resumed the government of Massachusetts. But, 
what greatly damaged his popularity among a people so 
hostile to the French, and to all popish connections, he 
brought with him from Paris a young wife, a French woman 
and a Catholic. Perceiving a war to be approaching, he 
summoned the Eastern Indians to renew their treaties. But 
they eagerly availed themselves of this new opportunity to 
raise the hatchet. For the sixth time wdthin eighty years, 
luckily destined to be the last, the frontiers of New England 
again sufferetl. The General Court readily voted money to 
repel these hostilities ; and, as an oftset to a reported French 
fort near the head of the Chaudiere — while Washington was 
fortifying at Will's Creek — Shirley built Fort Halifax, high 
up the Kennebec. Hardly had the Governor returned from 
the eastward, when Hoosick and Stockbridge, on the western 
fi^ntiei*, were assailed by an Indian war party. These 
assailants belonged to a tribe largely composed of descend- 
ants of refugees driven from Massachusetts in the time of 
Philip's war. As a protection to that frontier, the Stock- 
bridge tribe was taken into pay. 

Maryland and New York voted in aid of Virginia, the one 
£6000, the other X5000 ; <£10,000 were also received from 
England, whence came a commission to Sharpe, governor of 
Maryland, as Commander-in-Chief of the forces to be em- 
ployed against the French. Warm disputes about rank and 
precedence had already arisen between the Virgina regi- 
mental officers and the captains of the independent com- 
panies. To stop this dispute, Dinwiddie had dispensed with 
field officers, and broken the Virginia regiment into separate 
companies — an arrangement wdiich had driven Washington 
from the service. 

The pending territorial disputes led about this time to the 
publication of the maps of Evans and Mitchell, the first 
embracing the middle colonies, the other the whole of North 
America. The first edition of Mitchell's map had appeared 



232 •' Sam : '' or, the Histoey of Mystery. 

in 1749 ; but a new edition was now published, with improve- 
ments. The British North American colonies stretched a 
thousand miles along the Atlantic, but their extent inland 
was very limited. According to a return made to the Board 
of Trade, the population amounted to — 

Whites, 1,192,896 

Blacks, 292,738 

Total 1,485,634 

New France, on the other hand, had scarcely a hundred 
thousand people, scattered over a vastly wider space, from 
Cape Breton to the mouth of the Mississippi, but mainly 
collected on the St. Lawrence, betweeen Quebec and Mon- 
treal. The remote situation of their settlements, separated 
from the English by uninhabited forests and unexplored 
mountains, the very dispersion of their force over so vast a 
space, gave the French a certain security, while the whole 
western frontier of the English, from Maine to Georgia, lay 
exposed to attack by the Indian tribes, disgusted by constant 
encroachments on their hunting-grounds, and ripe and ready 
for a troublesome and cruel warfare. There were kept in 
Canada, for the defense of the province, thirty-three com- 
panies of regular troops, of about fifty men each. 

The loud complaints of the English embassador at Paris 
were met by protestations esteemed unmeaning or insincere. 
A struggle was evidently impending in America, greater 
than had yet been known. In anticipation of approaching 
hostilities, a general order gave to all officers commissioned 
by the king or the commander-in-chief, precedence over such 
as had only colonial commissions — an order which created 
great disgust and occasioned much trouble in America. New 
clauses introduced into the annual Mutiny Act, subjected the 
colonial soldiers, when acting in conjunction with regular 
troops, to the rigid rules of the regular service, and required 
the colonial Assemblies to provide quarters and certain enu- 
merated supplies for the regular troops within their jurisdic- 
tion. General Braddock, appointed commander-in-chief, was 
dispatched to the Chesapeake with two British regiments. 
Two regiments of a thousand men each, to be paid by the 
crown, one Pepperell's, the other Shirley's, were ordered to 
be raised and officered in New England. The colonies were 



" Sam : ^' or, the History of Mystery. 233 

also to be called upon for their respective quotas of colonial 
levies. As the Quaker Legislature of Pennsylvania had 
scruples about raising troops, three thousand men were to 
be enlisted in that province by authority of the crown. 

At Alexandria, on the Potomac, Braddock met a conven- 
tion of colonial governors, with whom he settled the plan of 
the campaign. He undertook to march in person against 
Fort Da Quesne, and to expel the French from the Ohio. 
Shirley, lately promoted to the rank of major-general, was 
to march against Niagara. The capture of Crown Point, 
already planned by Shirley, and resolved upon by Massachu- 
setts, was intrusted to Johnson, whose ascendency over the 
Six Nations had lately procured for him a royal appointment 
as general superintendent of Indian affairs, with the sole 
power of making treaties. There was already on foot a 
fourth expedition, concerted by Shirley and Lawrence, gov- 
ernor of Nova Scotia, for the capture of the French posts 
near the head of the Bay of Fundy, and the expulsion of the 
French from that province. 

In anticipation of Braddock's arrival, application for troops 
had already been made by the several governors. Massachu- 
setts responded with zeal, and a levy was ordered of three 
thousand two hundred men. The exportation of provisions, 
except to other British colonies, and any correspondence with 
the French were prohibited; but it required a pretty watch- 
ful eye to put a stop to this commerce. The treasurer was 
authorized to borrow <£oO,000, ($1Q6,66Q,) on the credit of 
taxes to produce that sum within two years. This method 
of providing funds proved successful, and was adhered to 
durino; the war. 

The Assembly of New York voted ^45,000 in paper bills, 
for erecting fortifications and enlisting eight hundred men. 
They ordered barracks to be built ; and though they made no 
appropriation for supplying the other articles required by the 
Mutiny Act, their unexpected promptitude and liberality 
were highly applauded by the Board of Trade. The New 
Jersey Assembly, beside providing for the subsistence of the 
king's troops, as the Mutiny Act required, ordered five hun- 
dred men to be raised, and to pay the expense, they raised 
c£70,000 of new paper. 
20 



234 --Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

If the zeal and energy of the six northern colonies sur- 
passed the expectations of the Board of Trade, the aid 
furnished by the more southern provinces was comparatively 
trifling. (1754:.) 

The Assembly of Maryland voted toward Braddock's expe- 
dition XI 0,000 in paper, to be redeemed out of fines and 
forfeitures. But the fines and forfeitures were claimed as a 
part of the personal revenue of the proprietary ; the council 
non-concurred, and the appropriation thus fell to the ground. 

After a hearing in England, the Virginia dispute about 
fees for land patents had been compromised, and, " because 
the times required harmony and confidence," Dinwiddie had 
been directed to restore Eandolnh to his former office of 
attorney-general. But feeling on this subject did not imme- 
diately subside, a dispute being still kept up about Eandolph^s 
payment as agent. The Assembly voted, however, .£20,000 
toward the support of the colonial levies ; and, in anticipation 
cf the taxes imposed to meet it, authorized the issue of trea- 
sury notes — the first paper money of Virginia. 

As further aid toward "repelling the encroachments of the 
French," North Carolina voted X8,000. The government 
of that province had recently been given to Arthur Dobbs ; 
and, thankful for the appointment of a ruler of " known 
abilities and good character" — for so the Assembly described 
him — they promised to "forget former contests." But the 
new governor, anxious to enhance his authority, soon became 
involved in disputes with the Assembly, whose speaker, Star- 
kie, he stigmatized "as a Bepublican of puritanic humility, 
but unbounded ambition." Starkie was treasurer as well as 
speaker. He could lend money to the delegates; and his 
influence far exceeded that of a governor " who had not the 
power of rewarding his friends." (1755.) 

A French squadron destined for America, was known to be 
fitting out at Brest, on board of which Dieskau presently em- 
barked with four thousand troops. To intercept this squadron, 
Boscawen was sent with a British fleet to cruise on the banks 
of Newfoundland. Suspecting some such scheme, most of the 
French ships entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence by the Straits 
of Belle Isle, whence they proceeded to Quebec. Others 
passing Boscawen in the fog, landed a thousand men at 



" Sam : ' or, the History of Mystery. 235 

Louisburg. Two only of the French transports, with eight 
companies on board, fell into the hands of the English. 

In consequence of this attack, the French embassador was 
recalled from London. The English ministry retorted by 
issuing letters of marque and reprisal, under which a great 
number of valuable merchant vessels and not less than seven 
thousand French seamen were seized. The French com- 
plained loudly as well of these aggressions as of Washington's 
attack on Jumonville. The English, in excuse, charged the 
French with invading Virginia and NoVa Scotia. Hostilities 
were already flagrant, but neither party issued as yet a 
declaration of war. 

While Boscawen was still cruising off Newfoundland, watch- 
ing for the French fleet, three thousand men embarked .at 
Boston for the Bay of Fundy. These troops, forming a regi- 
ment of two battalions, were led by John AYinslow, a great 
grand-son of Edward Winslow, one of the patriarchs of Ply- 
mouth colony, and grandson of the commander of the New 
England forces at the great swamp fight in Philip's war ; him- 
self, during the previous war, a captain in Vernon's West India 
expedition. It was principally through his popularity and in- 
fluence that the enlistments had been procured. He was a 
major-general in the Massachusetts militia, but was persuaded 
on this occasion to accept a commission as lieutenant-colonel. 
Arrived at Chignecto, at the head of the bay, Winslow's forces 
were joined by Colonel Monet on, with three hundred British 
regulars, the garrison of the British posts in that neighbor- 
hood, to whom also, Shirley had given a Massachusetts commis- 
sion, with a rank higher than Winslow's. Under his command, 
they marched against the French forts recently established on 
the two shores of the isthmus at Beau Sejour and Gaspareau. 
Taken by surprise, these forts made but a trifling resistance. 
The fort at the mouth of the St. John's, on the approach of an 
English detachment, was abandoned and burned. The ex- 
pulsion of the French troops from the Bay of Fundy had 
been accomplished without difliculty. But what was to be 
done with the French colonists, amounting now to some twelve 
or fifteen thousand, settled principally in three detached bodies 
about Beau Bassin, "the beautiful basin" of Chignecto, on 
the no less beautiful basin of Minas — the two divisions into 



236 " Sam : " or, the History op Mystery. 

whicli the upper Bay of Fundy divides — and on the fertile 
banks of the basin or river of Annapolis ? 

It was thirty years since Nova Scotia had become a British 
province ; but these settlers, who had more than doubled their 
number in the interval, continued still French, not in lan- 
guage, religion and manners only, but also in attachments, 
receiving their priests from Canada, and always ready to 
favor any movement that tended to restore them to their 
ancient allegiance. By the terms granted when the British 
authorities took possession of the province, they were excused 
from any obligation to bear arms against France, and were 
thence known as "French neutrals." But they did not act up 
even to that character. Three hundred of their young men 
had been taken in arms at the surrender of Beau Sejour, 
and one of their priests had been actively employed as a 
French agent. To curb these hostile people would require 
several expensive garrisons. If ordered to quit the country, 
and allowed to go where they pleased, they would retire to 
Canada and Cape Breton, and strengthen the enemy there. 
To devise some scheme adequate to this emergency, Law- 
rence, lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, consulted with 
Boscawen and Mostyn, commanders of the British fleet, which 
had just arrived on the coast after its cruise to intercept 
Dieskau. These military men took counsel with Belcher, 
chief justice of the province, a son of the former governor of 
Massachusetts. The result was, notwithstanding an express 
provision in the capitulation of Beau Sejour that the neigh- 
boring inhabitants should not be disturbed, a plan for treach- 
erously kidnapping the Acadiens, and transporting them to 
the various British provinces. The capitulation of Beau 
Sejour did not apply to the settlements of Minas and Annap- 
olis ; but the people there strenuously denied any complicity 
with the French invaders, which seems, indeed, in their case, 
to have been rather suspected than proved. (1755.) 

The Acadiens had preserved all the gay simplicity of 
ancient French rural manners. Never was there a people 
more attached to their homes, or who had more reasons for 
being so. They lived in rustic plenty, surrounded by herds 
of cattle and sheep, and drawing abundant crops from the 
rich levels, fine sediment deposited by the tides on the borders 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 237 

of tlie basins, and -u-liicli their industry had diked in from the 
sea. Knowing how much was to be dreaded from despair, the 
ruthless design against them was kept a profound secret. As- 
sembled under various false pretenses at their parish churclies, 
they were surrounded with troops, made prisoners, and hur- 
ried on board the ships assigned for their transportation ! 
Wives separated from their husbands in the confusion of 
embarking, and children from their parents, were carried 
off to distant colonies, never again to see each other ! Their 
lands, crops, cattle, everything except household furniture, 
which they could not carry away, and money, of which they 
had little or none, were declared forfeit to the crown ; and, 
to insure the starvation of such as fled to the woods, and so 
to compel their surrender, the growing crops were destroyed, 
and the barns and houses burned, with all their contents ! 

More than a thousand of these unfortunate exiles, carried 
to Massachusetts, long remained a burden on the public, too 
broken-hearted and disconsolate to do much for themselves. 
Their misery excited pity, in spite of the angry feeling 
created by protracted hostilities ; but such was still, in New 
England, the horror of Popery, that they were not allowed to 
console themselves by the celebration of the mass. 

To every British North American colony was sent a quota 
of these miserable people, a burden on the public charity, for 
which the Assemblies were called on to provide. It was an 
object to get rid of them as speedily as possible. Some made 
their way to France, others to Canada, St. Domingo, and 
Louisiana, the expenses of their transport being paid in many 
instances by the colonial Assemblies. To such of these fugi- 
tives as escaped to Louisiana, lands were assigned in that 
district, above New Orleans, still known as the Acadien coast. 
The four hundred sent to Georgia, built rude boats, and 
coasted northward, hoping to reach the Bay of Fundy. Few, 
however, were so lucky as to regain a French home and the 
ministrations of the Catholic faith. The greater part, spirit- 
less, careless, and helpless, died in exile, victims of disap- 
pointment and despair. Such was the result of that rivalry 
of a century and a half between the English of New Eng- 
land and the French of Acadie. Such is religious and national 
antipathy. May we not hope that hatreds so atrocious are 
fast dying out ? 



238 "Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

The authors of this cruel scheme had been confirmed in 
their purpose by a repulse which the English had, meanwhile, 
sustained in the attempt to drive the French from the Ohio. 
Braddock's regulars had been landed at Alexandria, a small 
town lately sprung up near the head of ship navigation on 
the Potomac. But great difficulties were encountered in 
obtaining provisions and means of transportation. The con- 
tractors perpetually failed in their engagements, and Brad- 
dock and his quarter-master, both men of violent tempers, 
gave vent, with very little reserve, to expressions of disgust 
and contempt for the colonists. With great difficulty the 
troops reached Cumberland, where they came to a full stop. 
Franklin, in his character of deputy postmaster, having vis- 
ited the camp to arrange a post communication with Phila- 
delphia, by assuming responsibilities on his own credit, which 
left him, in the end, a considerable loser, obtained wagons 
and horses among the Pennsylvania farmers, which enabled 
the army once more to move forward. The regulars had 
been joined by the detached companies of the Virginia levies, 
and the whole force now amounted to twenty-two hundred 
men. Washington had been invited by Braddock to attend 
him as an aid-de-camp. 

From Cumberland to Bedstone w^as a distance of fifty 
miles,, over several steep and rough ridges of the Alleghany 
Mountains. Only Indian paths yet traversed this difficult 
and uninhabited country, through which the troops had to 
cut a road for the wagons and artillery. Vexed at this delay, 
Braddock left Colonel Dunbar to bring up the heavy bag- 
gage, and pushed on in advance, at the head of thirteen 
hundred picked men. He was warned of the danger to 
w^hich the nature of the country and the character of the 
enemy exposed him, and was advised to place the provincials 
in his front, to scour the woods. But he held both the enemy 
and the provincials in too much contempt to give attention to 
this advice. He had gained forty miles on Dunbar, and was 
now within five miles of Fort Du Quesne, when, about noon, 
just after fording the Monongahela a second time, his van, 
while ascending the rising bank of the river, was fired upon 
by an invisible enemy. The assailants, some two hundred 
French and six hundred Indians, with only thirteen French 
officers, and none above the rank of captain, were posted in 



" Sam :'' or, the History of Mystery. 239 

an open wood, in some shallow undulations just deep enough 
to conceal them as they lay flat on the ground among the 
high grass. Braddock's main body hastened up with the 
artillery, but the unseen enemy continued to pour in a deadly 
fire ; and the British troops, seized with sudden panic, were 
thrown at once into hopeless confusion. In vain the general 
exerted himself to restore order. He had five horses shot 
under him, and soon fell mortally wounded. Not less than 
sixty officers, chosen marks for the enemy's bullets, were 
killed or disabled; among the latter, Horatio Gates, captain 
of one of the independent companies, and twenty years after- 
ward a general in the revolutionary army. The provincials, 
acquainted with the Indian method of fighting, alone made 
any eftectual resistance. Washington, still weak from the 
effects of a recent fever, put himself at their head. They 
were the last to leave the field, and partially covered the 
flight of the discomfited regulars. Delay was thus given 
for bringing oft" the wounded, but the baggage and artillery 
were abandoned to the enemy. The English lost, in killed 
and disabled, some seven hundred men, or more than half 
their force engaged. The loss of the French and Indians did 
not exceed sixty. The victors, intent on the spoils of the 
field, pursued only a few miles, but the flying troops did not 
rally till they reached the camp of Dunbar, who abandoned 
the expedition, and, having destroyed all the stores not 
needed for immediate use, retired first to Cumberland and 
then to Philadelphia. 

Shirley meanwhile, with his own and Pepperell's regiment, 
lately enlisted in Xew England, and some irrregulars and 
Indians drawn from New York, was on the march from 
Albany to Oswego, where he proposed to embark for Niag- 
ara. He had rivers to clear, boats to build, roads to cut, 
and provisions and munitions to transport through the wild- 
erness. The army reached Oswego at last, but seriously 
disabled by sickness, and discouraged by the news of Brad- 
dock's defeat, whose death raised Shirley to the command-in- 
cliief, in which lie was presently confirmed by an appointment 
from England. Two strong forts were built at Oswego, 
vessels were prepared, and great preparations were made for 
proceeding against Niagara. 



240 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

The Assembly of New York had already voted X8000 
toward the enlistment, in Connecticut, of two thousand addi- 
tional men, for the Niagara and Crown Point expeditions. 
After hearing of Braddock's defeat, they raised four hundred 
men of their own, in addition to the eight hundred already in 
the field. Delancey, though presently superceded in the 
government by Sir Charles Hardy, a Naval officer, still 
retained a principal influence in the administration. 

The troops destined for the Crown Point expedition, some 
six thousand men, drawn from New England, New Jersey, 
and New York, advancing under General Lyman, of Connec- 
ticut, to the head of boat navigation on the Hudson, built 
there Fort Lyman, called afterward Fort Edward. Johnson 
joined them with the stores and artillery, assumed the com- 
mand, and advanced to Lake George. Dieskau, meanwhile, 
had ascended Lake Champlain with two thousand men from 
Montreal, had landed at South Bay, the southern extremity 
of that lake, and had pushed on toward Fort Lyman. When 
quite near it, dreading its artillery, or for some other cause, 
he suddenly changed his plan, and marched to attack Johnson. 
Liformed of his approach, Johnson sent forward Colonel 
Williams with a thousand Massachusetts troops, and a body 
of Mohawk Lidians under Hendrick, a famous chief. In a 
narrow and rugged defile, about three miles from the camp, 
this detachment encountered the whole of Dieskau's army. 
Williams and Hendrick were slain, and their force driven 
back in confusion. Williams had secured himself a better 
monument than any victory could give. While passing 
through Albany he had made his will, leaving certain pro- 
perty to found a free school for Western Massachusetts, since 
grown into " Williams' College." 

Following up the defeated troops, Dieskau assaulted John- 
son's camp. It was protected on both sides by impassable 
swamps, and in front by a breastwork of fallen trees. Some 
cannon just brought up from Fort Edward, opened an unex- 
pected fire, and tlie assailants were presently driven back in 
confusion. Dieskau, mortally wounded, was taken prisoner. 
The remains of his army fled to Crown Point. The French 
loss was estimated at a thousand men, the English at three 
hundred. 



" Sam :'' OR, THE History of Mystery. 241 

A party of Xew Hampsliirc troops on their way from Fort 
Lyman, encountered the baggage of Dieskau's army, which 
they captured after overpowering the guard. These three 
actions, fought the same day, and known as the battle of 
Lake George, were proclaimed through the colonies as a great 
victory, for which Johnson was rewarded with the honors of 
knighthood, and a parliamentary grant of £5,000. As John- 
son had been wounded early in the action, the Connecticut 
troops claimed the honor of the victory for General Lyman, 
second in command. 

One of the Massachusetts regiments distinguished in this 
action was commanded by Timothy Euggles, afterward pres- 
ident of the Stamp Act Congress. The personal history of 
Buggies serves to illustrate the simple manner of those 
times. Son of a minister, he had been educated at Cam- 
bridge, had studied law, and commenced the practice of it in 
Plymouth and Barnstable, with good success. Marrying the 
widow of a rich inn-keeper, he added tavern-keeping to his 
business as a lawyer. When the war broke out, he entered 
into the military line, and being a man of energy and sense, 
he served with distinction for the next five years. Israel 
Putnam, afterward a revolutionary major-general, now a cap- 
tain in one of the Connecticut regiments, had already distin- 
guished himself as a partisan officer, in which capacity he 
served during the war. 

Though re-enforced from Massachusetts, which colony, on 
hearing of Braddock's defeat, had voted two thousand addi- 
tional troops, Johnson made no attempt on Crown Point. 
He even allowed the French to establish and fortify them- 
selves at Ticonderoga. Under the superintendence of Gridley, 
who acted as engineer, Fort William Henry was built, near 
the late field of battle, at the head of Lake George. The 
New Englanders accused Johnson of incapacity; but he 
alleged the want of provisions and means of transportation 
sufficient to justify active operations. 

After having made great preparations at Oswego, heavy 
rains delayed Shirley's embarkation ; and finally, owing to 
the approach of winter and the scanty supply of provisions, 
the enterprise against Niagara was given over for the season. 
Shirley left seven hundred men in garrison at Oswego ; but 
all the colonial levies, except six hundred men to garrison 
21 



242 "Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

Fort William Henry, and such troops as Massachusetts kept 
up at the eastward for frontier defense, were marched home 
and disbanded. 

The frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, 
uncovered by Dunbar's precipitate retreat, were exposed to 
war-parties of Indians in the French interest. The discon- 
tented Delawares on tJie northern borders of Pennsylvania, 
and the Shawanese in the interior, availed themselves of this 
crisis to commence hostilities. Governor Morris called loudly 
for men and money to defend the frontiers. The inhabitants 
of Philadelphia, in an address to the Assembly, urged a lib- 
eral grant. Dropping their favorite paper money project, 
the Assembly voted a tax of X50,000, to be levied on real 
and personal estates, " not excepting those of the proprieta- 
ries " — a clause, as they well knew, as contrary as the paper 
money, to the governor's instructions. If that clause might 
be omitted, some gentlemen of Philadelphia, in the proprie- 
tary interest, offered to contribute j65,000, the estimated 
amount of the tax on the proprietary estates. But the As- 
sembly wishing to improve this emergency to establish a pre- 
cedent, dexterously eva^led the offer ; the governor stood out, 
and the bill fell to the ground. Dunbar's regulars advancing 
from Philadelphia toward the frontier, afforded a temporary 
protection. 

To furnish funds for defending their frontiers, the Assem- 
bly of Virginia voted ^40,000 in taxes, in anticipation of 
which a new batch of treasury notes was issued. To Wash- 
ington, for his gallant behavior at Braddock's defeat, £300 
were voted, with lesser gratuities to several of the officers, 
and £5 to each of the surviving Virginia privates who re- 
mained in the service. Amono; the officers thus distinouished 
were Captain Adam Stephen, and Surgeon Hector Craig, the 
one afterward a major-general, the other at the head of the 
medical department of the revolutionary army. The Vir- 
ginia regiment was reorganized, and Washington again placed 
at its head, with Stephen for lieutenant-colonel, undertook 
the difficult task of repelling the Indians, whose ravages now 
extended as far as Winchester. The Assembly of Maryland 
granted .£6,000 for the defense of the province, and an ad- 
ditional sum was raised by voluntary subscription. A body 
of militia presently took the field under Governor Sharpe. 



" ISAM :" OR, THE History of Mystery. 243 

A violent dispute arose between Sliarpe and Dinwidie, as to 
the command of Fort Cumberland. The pretensions of Dag- 
worthy, in the Maryland service, who had formerly borne a 
royal commission, and who claimed precedence on that account 
over all officers with merely colonial commissions, was another 
source of trouble ; and AVashington presently found himself 
obliged to make a winter's visit to Boston, to obtain from 
Shirley definite orders on that point. 

The Quakers were still a majority in the Pennsylvania 
Assembly, but they could no longer resist the loud cry to 
arms, raised in Philadelphia and re-echoed from the frontiers, 
occasioned by Indian inroads on the Juniata settlements. 
The proprietary party made every efi:brt, and not without 
success, to stir up the public discontent. After a sharp strug- 
gle with the governor, in consideration of a voluntary con- 
tribution by the proprietaries of Xo,000, the Assembly 
consented to levy a tax of £55,000, from which the proj^rie- 
tary estates were exempted. The expenditure of this money 
was specially intrusted to a joint committee of seven, of whom 
a majority were members of Assembly, which committee be- 
came the chief managers of the war now formally declared 
against the Delawares and Shawanese. Thus driven, for the 
first time, to open participation in war, some of the Quaker 
members resigned their seats in the Assembly. Others de- 
clined a re-election. The rule of the Quakers came to an 
end. But this change, contrary to the hopes and expecta- 
tions of the proprietaries, did not reconcile the quarrel 
between them and the Assembly. That body insisted as 
strenuously as ever on their right to tax the proprietary 
estates. 

Toward the close of the year, Shirley met a convention of 
provincial governors at New York, to arrange plans for the 
next campaign. Expeditions against Fort Du Quesne, 
Niagara, and Crown Point were agreed upon, for which twen- 
ty thousand men would be necessary. New York voted 
seventeen hundred men as her quota, and issued ,£4:0,000 in 
paper, to support them. But the New England colonies, ex- 
hausted by their late efforts, and disgusted by their ill-success, 
did not respond to the expectations of Shirley. Feebly sup- 
ported in his own province, the commander-in-chief was 
fiercely assailed by Johnson and Delancey, who ascribed to his 



244 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

alleged want of military experience, the ill success of the 
late expeditions against Niagara and Crown Point, and whose 
intrigues presently procured his recall. 

Acts were passed in Pennsylvania for enrolling a volunteer 
militia and for raising rangers by enlistment. Having been 
very active in procuring these enactments, Franklin under- 
took the military command of the frontier, with the rank of 
colonel, and, under his directions, along the base of the Kit- 
taniny Mountains, from the Delaware to the Maryland line, 
a chain of forts and block-houses was erected, commanding 
the most important passes, and inclosing the greater part of 
the settlements. This volunteer militia, however, was far 
from satisfactory to the proprietary party, who sought by 
every means to obstruct it, and the act, at the request of the 
proprietaries, was presently set aside by a royal veto. On 
the other hand, some of the sturdier Quakers protested 
against a tax for war j^urposes, and advised a passive resist- 
ance to its collection. William Denny, a military officer, was 
sent out to supersede Morris, as deputy-governor. (1756.) 

The proprietary of Maryland having relinquished his claim 
to the fines and forfeitures, the Assembly granted ,£40,000, 
principally in paper money. A provision that papists should 
pay double taxes toward the redemption of this paper, evinced 
the still existing force of sectarian hostility. The lands and 
manors of the proprietary were also included among the ar- 
ticles taxed. Fort Cumberland was too far in advance to be 
of any use, and a new fort, called Frederick, was built at 
that bend of the Potomac which approaches nearest the 
Pennsylvania line. 

Fifteen hundred volunteers and drafted militia, commanded 
by Washington, and scattered in forts, afforded but an imper- 
fect defense to the suffering inhabitants of the Virginia Val- 
ley, many of whom abandoned their farms. In apology for 
the small number of these forces, Dinwiddie wrote to the 
Board of Trade, "We dare not part with any of our white 
men to any distance, as we must have a watchful eye over 
our negro slaves." Dumas, the conqueror of Braddock, in 
command at Fort Du Quesne, and De Celeron at Detroit, 
were constantly stimulating the Indians. Du Quesne having 
returned to the marine service, the Marquis de Vaudreuil de 



" Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 245 

Cavagnal had been appointed to succeed him as governor of 
New France. 

The French had all along offered to treat; but they de- 
manded, as a preliminary, the restoration of the merchant 
ships seized by the English — an act which they complained 
of as piratical. When this was refused, they commissioned 
privateers, and threatened to invade England with a fleet 
and army collected at Brest. To guard against this threat- 
ened invasion, a body of Hessian and Hanoverian troops was 
received into England. To excite the colonists to fresh ef- 
forts, £115,000 were voted as a reimbursement to the prov- 
inces concerned in Dieskau's defeat. Provision was also made 
for enlisting a royal American regiment, to be composed of 
four battalions of a thousand men each. A clause, afterward 
somewhat modified, authorizing the appointment of seventy 
officers in this regiment, from among the foreign Protestants 
settled and naturalized in America, gave great offense in the 
colonies, as did another clause, for the enlistment of indented 
servants, upon a compensation to be paid to their masters out 
of the colony funds. All hopes of reconciliation being now 
over, England formally declared war against France, to which 
the French court presently responded. 

Vigorous measures were, meanwhile, in progress for the 
supply and re-enforcement of Oswego. Bradstreet, of New 
York, appointed commissary-general, employed in this service 
forty companies of boatmen, each of fifty men. Under him, 
Philip Schuyler took his first lessons in the art of war. 
William Alexander, another native of New York, known 
afterward in the revolutionary armies as Lord Sterling, acted 
as Shirley's military secretary. By promises of parliament- 
ary reimbursements, and the advance to Massachusetts of 
.£30,000 out of the king's money, in his hands, Shirley as- 
sembled at Albany seven thousand provincials, chiefly of 
New England, under the command of General Winslow. 
The remains of Braddock's regiments, ordered on the same 
service, were presently joined by two new regiments from 
England, under General Abercrombie, who outranked and 
superseded Shirley. But the Earl of Loudon, selected by the 
British war office as commander-in-chief, being daily expected, 
Abercrombie declined the responsibility of any forward move- 
ment. 



246 " Sam : " or, the History op Mystery. 

Loudon gave an early specimen of his habitual procrastina- 
tion, by not arriving till late in the summer. (July 27, 
1756.) It was then determined to proceed with the bulk of 
the army against Ticonderoga and CroTvai Point, while one 
of the re2:ular reo;iments marched under General Webb, to 
re-enforce Oswego — a movement made to late. 

While the English army lay idle at Albany, short of pro- 
visions, and suffering from the small-pox, Montcalm, Die- 
skau's successor, lately arrived from France with a re-enforce- 
ment of troops, had ascended the St. Lawrence, had crossed 
Lake Ontario, had landed near Oswego with a force of five 
thousand men, regulars, Canadian militia and Lidians, and 
had laid siege to the forts. One of them was abandoned as 
untenable. Colonel Mercer, the commanding officer, was 
killed. The dispirited troops, after a short bombardment, 
surrendered as prisoners of war. Upward of a thousand men, 
a hundred and thirty-five pieces of artillery, a great quantity 
of stores and provisions, and a fleet of boats and small ves- 
sels, built the year before for the Niagara expedition, fell 
into the hands of Montcalm. 

To please the Six Nations, who had never been well satis- 
fied at the existence of this post in the center of their terri- 
tory, the French commander, with great policy, destroyed the 
forts, and by this concession induced the Indians to take a 
position of neutrality. The fall of Oswego occasioned almost 
as much alarm as the defeat of Braddock the year before. 
The British troops, on the march under Webb, fell back with 
terror and precipitation to Albany. Orders were sent to give 
over the march on Ticonderoga, and to devote the efforts of 
that army to strengthen Forts Edward and William Henry. 

As the season advanced and their term of service expired, 
the provincials were disbanded. The loss by sickness had 
been very severe, and many died after their return. The 
regulars, except small garrisons at Forts Edward and William 
Henry, went into winter quarters at New York and Albany — 
not, however, till they had first been employed in keeping 
the peace between Massachusetts and New York. As the 
settlements approached each other, the boundary dispute be- 
tween those two provinces had reached the extremity of riot 
and bloodshed. Loudon's demand at New York for gratui- 
tous quarters for his officers involved him in a violent 



" Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 247 

quarrel with the citizens, whom he frightened, at last, into 
obedience. 

More money being* absolutely necessary for the defense of 
the frontiers, by a sort of compromise between the governor 
and the Assembly of Pennsylvania, X30,000 were voted, to 
be issued in paper, and redeemed by a ten years' continuance 
of the lately-expired excise, to be appropriated toward the 
support of twenty-five companies of rangers. Franklin having 
retired from the militarv service, John Armstrono- — afterward 
a general in the revolutionary army — was commissioned as 
colonel, and soon distinguished himself by a successful ex- 
pedition against a hostile Indian town on the Alleghany. 
Charles Mercer, a Scotch physician — afterward also a revolu- 
tionary general — served in the same expedition as captain. 
The hostile Indians, thus attacked in their own villages, 
retired further to the west : yet scalping parties occasionally 
penetrated within thirty miles of Philadelphia. Large pre- 
miums were offered by the Assembly for Indian prisoners 
and Indian scalps. The feeling on the frontier against the 
Indians was very bitter. The Moravian missionaries, some 
of whose Indian converts had been seduced to join the hostile 
parties, became objects of suspicion. There were those, how- 
ever, among the Quakers, still true to their pacific principles, 
who insisted, and not entirely without reason, that the Dela- 
ware s, so long friendly to Pennsylvania, had not been driven 
into hostilities except by wrongs and intrusions that ought 
to be redressed. They formed an association, contributed 
money, and opened a communication with the Indians for the 
purpose of bringing about a peace. (1756.) Two conferences, 
not altogether unsuccessful, were held with this intent at 
Easton. Sir William Johnson complained, indeed, that the 
Quakers had intruded upon his office of Indian agent and 
sole negotiator. Others alleged that by this interference 
claims were suggested which, otherwise, the Indians never 
would have thought of. It was considered a great innovation 
upon the usual course of Indian treaties when Tedyuscung-, 
the Delaware chief, in the second conference at Easton, had 
for his secretary, Charles Thompson, master of the Quaker 
academy at Philadelphia, afterward secretary to the Contin- 
ental Congress. In spite of obloquy heaped upon them, in 
spite of accusations of partiality to the Indians and treachery 



248 "Sam:'^ or, the History op Mystery. 

to tlie white race, tke Quakers persevered ; and a tMrd 
treaty, held the next year at Lancaster, at which delegates 
from the Six Nations were also present, afforded a partial 
relief to the frontier of Pennsylvania. 

The Carolinas, thus far, had escaped the ravages of war ; 
but serious apprehensions began to be felt lest the Cherokees 
might be seduced from their allegiance. Though very ill 
armed, they could muster three or four thousand warriors. 
In a treaty held with them early in tlie war, Grovernor Glen 
had obtained an extensive cession in the middle and upper 
part of South Carolina ; and presently, in accordance, as it 
is said, with long-repeated solicitations on the part of the 
Indians, he built Fort Prince George, on one of the head 
streams of the Savannah, within gunshot of Kee-o-wee, the 
principal village of the Lower Cherokees. Another fort, in 
the country of the Upper Cherokees, on the head waters of 
the Tennessee River, near the south-western boundary of 
Virginia, was erected by a party from that province, and 
named Fort Loudon, after the commander-in-chief, who had 
also a commission as governor of Virginia. 

In consequence of a violent dispute with the Assembly, in 
which Glen and his council had involved themselves, no mili- 
tary supplies had hitherto been granted by South Carolina. 
This quarrel abated on the arrival of a new governor, Wil- 
liam H. Littleton, a cadet of the noble family of that name. 
He obtained a grant of j£4000 toward enlisting two compa- 
nies, to which a third was presently added, as garrisons for 
the forts. But the slave population of South Carolina was 
still more preponderant than in Virginia. It was no easy 
matter to enlist men, and the province presently received 
as welcome guests half a battalion of the Royal Americans, 
with three hundred colonial levies from North Carolina, and 
others from Virginia. (1757.) 

The plan for the next campaign, proposed by Loudon at 
the annual military council, held this year at Boston, was 
limited to the defense of the frontiers and an expedition 
ao-ainst Louisbur^:. To serve as o;arrisons for Forts William 
Henry and Edward, Loudon called on New England for four 
thousand, and on New York and New Jersey for two thou- 
sand men. Governor Hardy being appointed to a naval 
command, Lieutenant-governor Delancey reassumed the ad- 



'' Sam : " or, the History op Mystery. 249 

ministration of New York. The Assembly of New Jersey 
took advantage of this occasion to put out a new issue of 
paper money. New Jersey, as well as Pennsylvania, suffered 
from the incursions of the Delawares, against whom it con- 
tinued necessary to guard. 

To aid in the defense of Pennsylvania, Colonel Stanwix 
was stationed in the interior, with five companies of the 
Eoyal Americans; but this was only granted on condition 
that two hundred recruits should be enlisted for that regi- 
ment, to serve in South Carolina. The Pennsylvania Assem- 
bly, again yielding, had voted a levy of X100,000, without 
insisting on their claim to tax the proprietary estates. But 
they protested that they did it through compulsion, and they 
sent Franklin as their asient to Eno;land to uro-e their com- 
plaints. The charter authorized the proprietaries, their 
deputies, and lieutenants, to make laws "according to their 
best discretion," by and with the advice and consent of the 
freemen. The Assembly took the ground that the proprie- 
tary instructions to the deputy governors, being a restraint 
upon their discretion, were therefore illegal and void. 

Washington, with the Virginia levies, continued to watch 
the frontiers of that province. But no scheme of defense 
could answer much purpose, so long as the French held Fort 
Du Quesne. The defense of the frontiers thus provided for, 
Loudon sailed from New York with six thousand regulars, 
including late re-inforcements from England. At Halifax 
he was joined by the English fleet of eleven sail of the line, 
under Admiral Holborne, vrith six thousand additional sol- 
diers on board. But Louisburg was discovered to have a 
larger garrison than had been supposed ; and while Loudon 
lingered with characteristic indecision, seventeen French 
ships of the line anchored in the harbor, and made attack 
wholly out of the question. Loudon then re-embarked his 
forces and returned to New York. 

Not only had Shirley lost his military command ; the ma- 
chinations of his enemies had deprived him of his government 
also. It was given to Thomas Pownall, whose brother was 
secretary to the Board of Trade. Pownall had first come to 
America with the unfortunate Su' Danvers Osborne. Hold- 
ing a commission as lieutenant governor of New Jersey, he 



250 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

had been present at the Albany Congress, and afterward at 
the military convention at Alexandria. Thono;h he had re- 
ceived some favors from Shirley, he joined the party against 
him, and, having* gone to England, had obtained there the 
government of Massachnsetts. Pownall had hardly reached 
the province, the administration of which for four months 
past had been in the hands of the council, by the death of 
Lieutenant-governor Phipps, when an express arrived from 
Fort Edward with alarming news of a French invasion. 

The British army drawn aside for the futile attack on 
Louisburg, Montcalm, with eight thousand men, including 
the garrisons of Crown Point and Ticonderoga, ascended 
Lake George, landed at its southern extremity, and laid 
siege to Port William Henry. Colonel Monroe, the English 
officer in command, had a garrison of two thousand men. 
General Webb lay at Fort Edward, only fourteen miles 
distant, with four thousand troops. Montcalm pressed the 
attack with vigor. No movement was made from Fort 
Edward for Monroe's relief. His ammunition was exhaust- 
ed ; and, after a six days' siege, he found himself obliged 
to capitulate. The garrison were to march out with the 
honors of war, and were to be protected, with their baggage, 
as far as Fort Edward. Montcalm's Indian allies, dissatis- 
fied with these terms, and greedy for plunder, fell upon the 
retreating and disarmed troops. Monroe, with the greater 
part of the men, fell back to the French camp to demand 
protection. About six hundred fled into the woods, and the 
first who reached Fort Edward reported the massacre of the 
others. Some few were killed or never heard of; the rest 
came in one after another, many having lost their way and 
suffered extreme hardships. Frye, the commander of the 
Massachusetts forces, after wandering about some days, 
reached Fort Edward with no clothes but his shirt. 

The fall of Fort William Henry occasioned even greater 
alarm than the loss of Oswego the year before. Pownall 
appointed Sir William Pepperell lieutenant general of Mas- 
sachusetts. Orders were issued for calling; out the militia, 
and twenty thousand men were assembled in arms. Satisfied 
with having caused so much terror and expense, Montcalm, 
without attempting any thing further, retired again to 
Canada. 



" Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 251 

The arrival of Pownall made a considerable change in the 
politics of Massachusetts. By taking Otis, of Barnstable, 
speaker of the House, and other opponents of Shirley, into 
favor, according to Hutchinson, who was presently appointed 
lieutenant governor, he disgusted the old friends of govern- 
ment, and greatly weakened the government party. Otis 
was promised a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court ; his 
son, a young lawyer of shining abilities, was appointed advo- 
cate of the xldmiralty. Though Pown all's habits were rather 
freer than suited the Xew England standard, these conces- 
sions to the opposition, his frank manners, and liberal political 
views, served to make him very popular. 

On the death of the aged Belcher, Pownall went to New 
Jersey to assume authority as lieutenant governor. But he 
found it impracticable to govern both provinces at the same 
time. The government of Xew Jersey, after remaining 
some months in the hands of the president and council, was 
transferred to Francis Bernard, a practitioner in the English 
ecclesiastical courts. 

The Massachusetts General Court had provided barracks 
at the castle, for such British troops as might be sent to the 
province. But some officers on the recruiting service, finding 
the distance inconvenient, demanded to be quartered in the 
town. They insisted on the provisions of the Mutiny Act ; 
but the magistrates to whom they applied denied that act to 
be in force in the colonies. Loudon warmly espoused the 
cause of his officers; he declared " that in time of war the 
rules and customs of war must govern," and threatened to 
send troops to Boston to enforce the demand, if not granted 
within forty-eight hours. To avoid this extremity, the Gen- 
eral Court passed a law of their own, enacting some of the 
principal provisions of the Mutiny Act; and Loudon, through 
Pownall's persuasions, reluctantly consented to accept this 
partial concession. The General Court did not deny the 
power of Parliament to quarter troops in America. Their 
ground was, that the act, in its terms, did not extend to the 
colonies. A similar dispute occurred in South Carolina, 
where great difficulty was encountered in finding winter 
quarters for the Royal Americans. 

The first royal governor of Georgia, and his secretary, 
William Little, having involved themselves in a violent 



252 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

controversy with the Assembly, Eeynolds had been superseded 
by Henry Ellis, a proteg^ of the Earl of Halifax, the head 
of an expedition, some nine years before, for the discovery 
of a northwest passage. The population of Georgia now 
amounted to six thousand. On the breaking out of the war, 
Eeynolds had enlisted twenty rangers, but the quarrel with 
the Assembly prevented any provision for paying them. 
After Ellis's arrival, the Assembly voted money for erecting 
log forts at Savannah, Augusta, Ogeechee, Midway, and New 
Inverness. Ellis applied himself to the preservation of a 
good understanding with the neighboring Creeks and the 
Spanish governor of Florida. The rangers were taken into 
the king's pay, and Ellis obtained from Colonel Bouquet, 
commanding in South Carolina, a hundred provincial troops 
of Virginia, to be quartered in Savannah. A solemn council 
was presently held with the Creeks, and a new treaty of 
peace entered into with that powerful confederacy. A long 
dispute had been pending, in which the Creeks took a deep 
interest, growing out of the claims of Mary, the Indian inter- 
preter, of whose services Oglethorpe had availed himself on 
his first arrival in Savannah. After the death of her first 
husband, she had married a second white man, and upon his 
death, a third — no less a person than Thomas Bosomworth, 
who had first been Oglethorpe's agent for Indian aftairs, but 
afterward had gone to England, had obtained holy orders, 
and returned to Georgia as the successor of the Wesleys and 
Whitfield. The Creeks had made a conveyance to Mary, of 
their reservation of the islands on the coast, and the tract 
just above Savannah. She also claimed a large amount as 
arrears of her salary, as colonial interpreter. After a twelve 
years' controversy, which at times had threatened an Indian 
war, the matter was finally settled by a compromise, securing 
to Mary and her husband the title to the island of St. Cath- 
arine's and the payment of ,£2000 arrears, out of the sales of 
the other reserved lands. Another thing accomplished by 
Ellis was the division of the colony into eight parishes, and 
the establishment of the Church of England by law, with a 
salary of £26 to each parish minister. (1658.) 

To the war in America, and the simultaneous contest 
between the English and French East India Companies on the 
other side of the globe, had been added a military struggle 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 253 

the greatest the world had yet seen, carried on in the 
heart of Europe. France and Austria, forgetting their 
ancient rivalries, and supported by Eussia and most of the 
Germanic States, had united against Prussia and Hanover. 
The Hanoverian army had submitted to the disgraceful capit- 
ulation of Closter-Seven ; that principality had been occupied 
by the French ; and it required all the energy and military 
genius of Frederic of Prussia, to save him from a similar 
fate. 

In America, after three campaigns, and extraordinary 
efforts on the part of the English, the French still held pos- 
session of almost all the territory in dispute. They had 
been expelled, indeed, from the Bay of Fundy ; but Louis- 
burg, commanding the entrance of the St. Lawrence, Crown 
Point and Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain, Frontenac and 
Niagara on Lake Ontario, Presque Isle on Lake Erie, and 
the chain of posts thence to the head of the Ohio, were still 
in their hands. They had expelled the English from their 
ancient post of Oswego, had driven them from Lake George, 
and had compelled the Six Nations to a treaty of neutrality. 
A devastating Indian war was raging along the whole north- 
western frontier of the British colonies. A line from the 
mouth of the Kennebec, across the Merrimac and Connecticut 
to Fort Edward on the Hudson, and thence across the Mohawk, 
the Delaware, and the Susquehanna, to Fort Frederic on the 
Potomac, marked the exterior limit of the settlements ; but 
Indian scalping parties penetrated into the very center of 
Massachusetts, approached within a short distance of Phila- 
delphia, and kept Maryland and Virginia in constant alarm. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

Hildreth's account of tlie Progress and Conclusion of the Fourth Intercolo- 
nial War — Accession of George III — The English masters of the conti- 
nent, north of the Gulf of Mexico, and east of the Mississippi. 

William Pitt, afterward Earl of Chatham, took adroit 
advantage of the popular discontent at the ill success of the 
war, to force himself to a chief seat in the British cabinet — 
a station which he owed more to his energy and eloquence 
than to court favor, or to the influence of family or party 
connections, hitherto, in England, the chief avenues to power. 
Leaving to Newcastle, who still acted as nominal head of the 
ministry, the details of the domestic administration, Pitt, as 
secretary of state, with the cipher, Holderness, as his col- 
league in that department, assumed to himself the control 
of foreign and colonial affairs, and the entire management 
of the war. (1757.) 

Determined on a \dgorous campaign in America, he ad- 
dressed a circular to the colonies, in which he called for 
twenty thousand men, and as many more as could be fur- 
nished. The crown would provide arms, ammunition, tents, 
and provisions ; the colonies were to raise, clothe, and pay 
the levies ; but for all these expenses, Pitt promised a parlia- 
mentary reimbursement — a promise which acted like magic. 
Massachusetts voted seven thousand men, beside six hundred 
maintained for frontier defense. To fill up this quota, sol- 
diers were drafted from the militia and obliged to serve. 
The advances of Massachusetts during the year, were not less 
than a million of dollars. Individual Boston merchants paid 
taxes to the amount of ;§2,000. The tax on real estate 
amounted to two-thirds the income. The insolvencies 

(254) 



" Sam : '^ or, the History op Mystery. 255 

occasioned by the pressure of tlie war, gave rise to a bank- 
rupt act, but this was disallowed in England. Connecticut 
voted five thousand men. New Hampshire and Ehode Island 
furnished each a regiment of five hundred men. The New 
York quota of one thousand seven hundred men was raised 
to two thousand six hundred and eighty. The New Jersey 
regiment was enlarged to a thousand. The Assembly of 
Pennsylvania appropriated XI 00, 000 toward bringing two 
thousand seven hundred men into the field. Virginia raised 
two thousand men. (1758.) 

To co-operate with these colonial levies, the Eoyal Ameri- 
cans were recalled from Carolina. Large re-enforcements 
of regulars were also sent from England, made disposable by 
a plan which Pitt had adopted for intrusting the local de- 
fense of Great Britain, to an organized and active body of 
militia. By means of these various arrangements, Aber- 
crombie, appointed commander-in-chief, found fifty thousand 
men at his disposal — a greater number than the whole male 
population of New France. Of this army, twenty-two thou- 
sand were regulars, including the Eoyal Americans ; the rest 
were provincials. The total number of the inhabitants of 
Canada able to bear arms, did not exceed twenty thousand ; 
the regular troops were from four to five thousand. As the 
people had been so constantly called off to bear arms, culti- 
vation had been neglected, and Canada suffered almost a 
famine. 

Shirley's schemes of conquest were now renewed. Louis- 
burg, Ticonderoga, and Fort Du Quesne were all to be struck 
at once. The first blow fell on Louisburg. Boscawen ap- 
peared before that fortress with thirty-eight ships of war, 
convoying from Halifax an army of fourteen thousand men, 
chiefly regulars, under General Amherst, but including, also, 
a strong detachment of New England troops. Louisburg 
was held by a garrison of three thousand men ; eleven ships 
of war lay in the harbor. But the works were too much out 
of repair to withstand the operations of a regular siege ; and 
the garrison, after suftering severe loss, found themselves 
obliged to capitulate. This capitulation included not Louis- 
burg only, but the islands of Cape Breton, St. John's, (now 
Prince Edward's,) and their dependencies. The garrison be- 
came prisoners of war ; the inhabitants, many of them 



256 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

refugees from Acadie, were shipped to France. Siicli was the 
end of the French attempts at colonization, in the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, which now passed into exclusive English occupa- 
tion. Amherst sailed with his army for Boston, and thence 
marched to the western frontier. 

While the siege of Louisburg was going on, Abercromhie, 
with sixteen thousand men, embarked at Fort William Henry 
in flat boats prepared for the purpose, and, passing down 
Lake George, landed near its outlet. The van, advancing 
in some confusion through the woods, encountered a French 
scouting party, which had also lost its way, and a skirmish 
ensued, in which fell Lord Howe, a young officer who had 
made himself very popular with the provincials, and to whose 
memory, Massachusetts erected a monument in Westminster 
Abbey. 

Ticonderoga was held by some two thousand French sol- 
diers. As reinforcements w^ere said to be approaching, 
Abercromhie, without waiting for his artillery, rashly ordered 
an assault. The rear and sides of the fort were covered by 
water, and the front by a morass. The storming party were 
ordered to rush swiftly through the enemy's fire, reserving 
their own till they had passed the breastwork. But that 
breastwork was nine feet high, much stronger than was ex- 
pected, and guarded, in addition, by trees felled, with their 
branches sharpened, and pointing outward like so many lances 
against the assailants. After a four hours' struggle, and the 
loss in killed and wounded of two thousand men, Abercrom- 
hie abandoned the attack, and the next day made a precipi- 
tate and disorderly retreat to Fort William Henry. Among 
the wounded was Charles Lee, then a captain in the British 
service, afterward first major-general of tlie revolutionary 
army. In consequence of this defeat, Abercromhie was 
superseded, and the command-in-chief given to Amherst. 

Though no further attempt was made on Ticonderoga, 
Abercrombie's forces were not wholly idle. With a detach- 
ment of three thousand men, chiefly provincials of New 
York and New England, Bradstreet marched to Oswego, 
embarked there in vessels already provided, and, having 
ascended the lake, landed at Fort Frontenac. That place 
was untenable. The feeble garrison, taken entirely by 
surprise, speedily surrendered. Nine armed vessels were 



" Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 257 

captured ; and tlie fort, with a large store of provisions, was 
destroyed. Bradstreet's loss by the enemy was inconsidera- 
ble ; but not less than five hundred men perished by sickness. 
These troops, on their return, assisted in building Fort Stan- 
wix, intermediate between Oswego and Albany, on the site 
now occupied by the flourishing village of Eome. Among 
the officers under Bradstreet were Woodhull, who fell nine- 
teen years afterward on Long Island, and Van Schaick, 
afterward a colonel in the Xew York revolutionary line. 

The expedition against Fort Du Quesne had been commit- 
ted to General Forbes, with an army of seven thousand men, 
including the Pennsylvania and Virginia leWes, the Pwoyal 
Americans recalled from South Carolina, and an auxiliary 
force of Cherokee Indians. The Virginia troops were con- 
centrated at Cumberland, and those of Pennsylvania at 
Raystown, on the south branch of the Juniata. Washington 
advised to march from Cumberland, along the road cut by 
Braddock's army ; but, under the advice of some Pennsylva- 
nia land speculators, Forbes ordered a new road to be opened 
from Eaystown. With a division of two thousand five hun- 
dred men. Bouquet, who commanded the advance, presently 
reached Loyal Hanna, on the Kiskiminitas, the south branch 
of the Alleghany. Major Grant, with eight hundred men, 
sent forward from Loyal Hanna to reconnoiter, was surprised 
and driven back, with the loss of three hundred men, being 
himself taken prisoner. The enemy presently attacked 
Bouquet in his camp, but were repulsed by the artillery. 
The obstacles along the new route proved very serious ; and 
the Virginia Assembly, in a state of discouragement, resolved 
to withdraw a part of their troops. Forbes at last joined 
Bouquet with the main body and the heavy baggage. But 
the army, weakened by desertion and dispirited by sickness, 
was still fifty miles from Fort Du Quesne, and separated 
from it by an immense forest, without a road. Winter also 
was close at hand. A council of war advised the abandon- 
ment of the enterprise ; but, before any retrograde motion 
was made, three prisoners, accidentally taken, revealed the 
feebleness of the enemy. The blow struck by Bradstreet at 
Fort Frontenac had been felt on the Ohio in the failure of 
expected supplies, and the French, in consequence, had been 
deserted by the greater part of their Indian allies. Inspired 
09 



258 " Sam : " or, the HI;^TORY of Mystery. 

with fresli arclor, and leaving baggage and artillery behind, 
the troops, in spite of obstacles, pushed forward, at a rate, 
however, of less than ten miles a day. The day before they 
reached the fort, the French garrison, reduced to less than 
five hundred men, set fire to the works, and retired down the 
river. A detachment of four hundred and fifty men was left 
to hold this important post, for the possession of which the 
war had commenced, and which was now named Fort Pitt by 
the captors. The rest of the army hastened to return, before 
the setting in of winter. Fruits of this conquest were spee- 
dily realized in the inclination of the neighboring Indians 
for peace. Virginia and Maryland were now relieved from 
Indian incursions. Already a treaty had been held at Easton, 
with the Six Nations and their dependent tribes, the Dela- 
wares and others, by which all existing difficulties had been 
finally settled, and peace once more restored to the frontiers 
of Pennsylvania. 

Only the Eastern Indians still remained hostile. To hold 
them in check, and to cut off their communication with Can- 
ada, Fort Pownall was presently built on the Penobscot, the 
first permanent English occupation of that region. 

The perseverance of the Pennsylvania Assembly triumphed 
at last. Tired of struggling on unpaid — for they resolutely 
refused to vote him any salary unless he would come to their 
terms — Governor Denny consented to a tax act in which the 
proprietary estates were included. The Assembly had indem- 
nified him against the forfeiture of the bond by which he had 
bound himself to obey his instructions, and they rewarded 
this and other compliances by liberal grants of salary. But 
this violation of his instructions very soon cost Denny his 
office. (1759.) 

Seconded by an eager Parliament, Pitt resolved to follow 
up the successes of the late campaign by an attack on Can- 
ada — an intention communicated, under an oath of secrecy, 
to the colonial Assemblies. Stimulated by the prompt reim- 
bursement of their last year's expenses to the amount of 
near a million of dollars, the Assemblies acted with prompti- 
tude and energy. With the opening of the spring, twenty 
thousand colonial soldiers were again in the field, and to 
enable the commissariat department, which found it difficult 
to sell bills on the British treasury, to provide provisions for 



" 8am : ^^ OR, THE History of Mystery. 259 

the troops, the Assemblies of New York and Pennsylvania 
advanced a large sum in paper money. 

The plan now adopted for the conquest of Canada, was not 
materially different from that which Phipps and Warren had 
successively failed to execute. Amherst advanced by way 
of Lake Champlain with twelve thousand regulars and pro- 
vincials; Wolfe, a young general who had distinguished 
himself at the siege of Louisburg, having sailed early in the 
spring from England, escorted by a powerful fleet, made his 
appearance in the St. Lawrence with an army of eight thou- 
sand regular troops, in three brigades, commanded by Monc- 
ton, Townshend, and Murray. The danger of Quebec caused 
the withdrawal of the garrisons of Ticonderoga and Crown 
Point, and both these places soon, without any serious strug- 
gle, passed into Amherst's hands. 

According to the scheme of operations, Amherst should 
have proceeded down Lake Champlain to join Wolfe before 
Quebec, or, at least, to effect a diversion by attacking Mon- 
treal; but the want of vessels rendered this movement 
impossible. With Amherst was a body of New Hampshire 
Eangers, under Major Eogers, distinguished as a partisan 
officer, in whose corps served as captain, John Stark, a briga- 
dier afterward in the revolutionary army. Two hundred of 
these rangers were detached from Crown Point, against the 
Indian village of St. Francis, wdiose inhabitants had long 
been the terror of the New England frontier. Enriched by 
plunder and the ransom of their captives, these Indians had 
a handsome Catholic chapel, with plate , and ornaments. 
Their village was adorned by numerous scalps, trophies of 
victory, stretched on hoops, and elevated on poles. The 
rangers accomplished their march through the woods, and 
took the village entirely by surprise. A large part of the 
warriors were slain ; the village — as had happened so often in 
New England — was first plundered, and then burned. Their 
object thus accomplished, fearing lest their trail from Crown 
Point might be watched, the victors attempted to return by 
way of Lake ]Memphremagog and the Connecticut. But 
their provisions fell short; some perished for want of food; 
some were killed by the pursuing Indians. The greater 
part, however, reached, at last, the uppermost settlements on 



260 '* Sam: ■' or, the History of Mystery. 

the Connecticut, just below Bellows Falls, and thence made 
good their retreat to Crown Point. 

In pursuance of the original plan of canipaign, a third 
array, composed principally of provincials, and commanded 
by General Prideaux, had been collected at Oswego, for an 
attack on Niagara. Notwithstanding the late treaty of neu- 
trality, the influence of Sir William Johnson had induced a 
large body of warriors of the Six Nations to join this army. 
After a prosperous voyage from Oswego, Prideaux landed at 
Niagara and opened his batteries, but was soon killed by the 
bursting of a gun, when Johnson succeeded to the chief com- 
mand. Twelve hundred French regulars, drawn from the 
western posts, and followed by an equal force of Indian 
auxiliaries, advanced to raise the siege. Aware of their 
approach, Johnson took an advantageous position in advance 
of the fort. The relieving force was totally routed, and a 
large part taken prisoners. The fort surrendered the next 
day, and six hundred men with it. According to the plan 
of operations, Johnson should have descended Lake Ontario 
to co-operate on the St. Lawrence with Amherst and Wolfe ; 
but the want of proper shipping, the small supply of provis- 
ions, and the incumbrance of the French prisoners, prevented 
him from doing so. 

Deprived thus of all co-operation, Wolfe was left to besiege 
Quebec alone. Occupying a point of land on the north shore 
of the St. Lawrence, protected on the south by that river, 
and on the north by the tributary stream of the St. Charles, 
Quebec consisted then, as now, of an upper and a lower town, 
both regularly fortified. The lower town was built on a 
narrow beach at the water's edge, above which rose the 
Heights of Abraham, an almost perpendicular range of lofty 
rocks, formino' the river banks. On the level of these 
heights stretched a wide plain, on which the upper town was 
built. Overhanging the St. Lawrence, and extending for a 
great distance above the town, the heights seemed to afford 
on that side, an almost impregnable defense. Several float- 
ing batteries and armed vessels were moored in the St. 
Charles, and beyond it, in a camp strongly intrenched, and 
covered by the Montmorency, another and larger river, which 
enters the St. Lawrence a short distance below Quebec, lay 
Montcalm's army, almost equal in numbers to that of Wolfe, 



" Sam : " or, the History op Mystery. 261 

but composed largely of Canadians and Indians. Every 
exertion had been made for the defense of the city, but the 
supply of provisions was very limited. 

Wolfe had landed on the fertile island of Orleans, just 
below the city. His naval superiority gave him full com- 
mand of the river. After a slight skirmish, he gained pos- 
session of Point Levi, held by a body of French troops, on 
the south bank of the St. Lawrence, opposite Quebec, where 
he erected batteries, which set fire to and destroyed the 
Cathedral and many houses, but the distance was too great 
for any effect on the fortifications. Wolfe then landed on 
the opposite bank, below the town, intending to force the pas- 
sage of the Montmorency, and to bring Montcalm to an action. 
The French were very strongly posted, and the impetuosity 
of Wolfe's advanced party, which rushed to the attack before 
support was ready, obliged him to retire with a loss of five 
hundred men. 

An attempt was then made to destroy the French shipping, 
and to alarm and draw out the garrison by descents above 
the town. One valuable magazine was destroyed, a great 
many houses were burned, much plunder was made, but it 
was impossible to cut out the French ships. To guard against 
future attacks, Montcalm sent De Bougainville up the river 
with fifteen hundred men. 

The prospect was very discouraging. The season for ac- 
tion was fast passing. Nothing had been heard of the forces 
designed to co-operate from the side of ]S[ew York, except 
reports from the enemy, of the retreat of Amherst. Though 
suffering from severe illness, instead of despairing, Wolfe 
embraced the bold proposal of his principal officers, to scale 
the Higlits of Abraham, and thus to approach the city on 
the side where its defenses were feeblest. Above Quebec 
there was a narrow beach sufficient to afford a practicable 
landing place ; but it might easily be missed in the dark ; 
and the hights rose so steep above it, that even by daylight 
and unopposed, the ascent was a matter of hazard and diffi- 
culty. Should the French be on their guard, repulse was 
inevitable. (1759.) 

The army, placed on ship-board, moved up the river, several 
miles beyond the proposed landing-place. To distract atten- 
tion and conceal the real design, a show was made of 



262 "Sam:'' or, the History op Mystery. 

disembarking at several points. AVhen night had set in, 
flat-bottomed boats, with the soldiers on board, fell down the 
river with the tide, and, carefully avoiding the French sen- 
tinels, succeeded in finding the beach. The light troops were 
led by Colonel Howe, afterward Sir William, and commander- 
in-chief of the British armies in America. Assisted by the 
rugged projections of the rocks and the branches of trees, 
they made their way up the bights, and, having dispersed 
a small force stationed there, covered the ascent of the main 
body. Early in the morning, the whole British army ap- 
peared drawn up on the Plains of Abraham. To meet this 
unexpected movement, Montcalm put his troops in motion. 
Nothing now but a victory could prevent a siege and save 
the city. He advanced, accordingly, in order of battle. 
Bodies of Indians and Canadians in his front, kept up an 
irregular but galling fire. Wolfe gave orders to disregard 
these skirmishers, and to await the approach of the main 
body. The French had arrived within forty yards of the 
English, when their advance was checked by a heavy fire of 
musketry and grape. Eight or ten six-pounders, dragged 
up the bights by the seamen, were brought into line after 
the action began. The French appear to have had but two 
small field-pieces. The battle raged fiercest on the right of 
the English and the left of the French, where the two gen- 
erals were respectively stationed opposite each other. Though 
already twice wounded, Wolfe gave orders for the charge. 
He fell, wounded a third time, and mortally ; but the grena- 
diers still advanced. The French, close pressed by the Eng- 
lish bayonets and the broadswords of the Scotch Highland 
regiments, began to give way. To complete their confusion, 
Montcalm fell with a mortal wound. The whole French line 
was soon in disorder. Five hundred Frenchmen were killed ; 
a thousand, including the wounded, were taken prisoners. 
The English loss amounted to six hundred killed and wound- 
ed. A part of the dispersed army escaped into the town, 
but the bulk of the fugitives retired across the St. Charles. 
Hardly was the battle over, when De Bougainville made his 
appearance, marching hastily down the river. An hour or 
two sooner, and he might have changed the fortune of the 
day. As it was, after collecting the fugitives from behind 
the St. Charles, he retired again up the St. Lawrence. 



"Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 263 

Preparations for besieging tlie city were commenced by 
Townshend, whom Wolfe's death and Moncton's severe wound 
had made commander-in-chief, but through lack of provisions 
it surrendered on capitulation, five days after the battle — the 
regulars to be sent to France, the inhabitants to be guaran- 
teed their property and religion. General Murray, with five 
thousand men, was left in garrison. The fleet, with the sick 
and the French prisoners, hastened to anticipate the approach- 
ing frost by retiring to Halifax, where the ships were to 
winter. 

The Cherokees, who had accompanied Forbes in his ex- 
pedition against Fort Du Quesne, returning home along the 
mountains, had involved themselves in quarrels with the back 
settlers of Virginia and the Carolinas, in which several, both 
Indians and white men, had been killed. Some chiefs, who 
had proceeded to Charleston to arrange this dispute, were 
received by Governor Littleton in very haughty style, and 
he presently marched into the Cherokee country at the head 
of fifteen hundred men, contributed by Virginia and the 
Carolinas, demanding the surrender of the murderers of the 
English. He was soon glad, however, of any apology for 
retiring. His troops proved very insubordinate ; the small- 
pox broke out among them ; and, having accepted twenty-two 
Indian hostages as security for peace and the future delivery 
of the murderers, he broke up his camp, and fell back in 
haste and confusion. (Jan. 1760.) 

The hostages, including several principal chiefs and war- 
riors, were placed for safe keeping in Fort Prince George, at 
the head of the Savannah. No sooner was Littleton's army 
gone, than the Cherokees attempted to entrap into their 
power the commander of that post, and, apprehensive of some 
plan for the rescue of the hostages, he gave orders to put 
them in irons. They resisted ; and a soldier having been 
wounded in the struggle, his infuriated companions fell upon 
the prisoners and put them all to death. Indignant at this 
outrage, the Cherokees beleaguered the fort, and sent out war 
parties in every direction, to attack the frontiers. The As- 
sembly of South Carolina, in great alarm, voted a thousand 
men, and offered a premium of X25 for every Indian scalp. 
North Carolina offered a similar premium, and authorized, 
in addition, the holding of Indian captives as slaves. An 



264 " Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

express, asking assistance, was sent to General Amherst, who 
detached twelve hundred men, under Colonel Montgomery, 
chiefly Scotch Highlanders, lately stationed on the western 
frontier, with orders to make a dash at the Cherokees, but 
to return in season for the next campaign against Canada. 

Promoted to the government of Jamaica, Littleton had 
resigned the administration of South Carolina to William 
Bull, the lieutenant-governor, a native of the province, whose 
father, of the same name, had formerly administered the 
government, as president of the council. Bull, a man of 
talents and character, had received at Leyden a medical 
degree — the first, or one of the first, ever obtained by a 
native Anglo-American. With some short intervals, during 
which Thomas Boone, Lord Charles Montague, and Lord 
William Campbell acted as governors, he continued, as lieu- 
tenant-governor, at the head of affairs, till South Carolina 
ceased to be a British province. 

Joining his forces with the provincial levies, Montgomery 
entered the Cherokee country, raised the blockade of Fort 
Prince George, and ravaged the neighboring district. March- 
ing then upon Etchoe, tke chief village of the Middle Cher- 
okees, within five miles of that place he encountered a large 
body of Indians, strongly posted in a difficult defile, from 
which they were only driven after a very severe struggle ; 
or, according to other accounts, Montgomery was himself 
repulsed. At all events, he retired to Charleston, and, in 
obedience to his orders, prepared to embark for service at 
the north. When this determination became known, the 
province was thrown into the utmost consternation. The 
Assembly declared themselves unable to raise men to protect 
the frontiers ; and a detachment of four hundred regulars 
was presently conceded to Bull's earnest solicitations. 

During the pressure of the war with the Western Indians, 
as one means of raising supplies, the Assembly of Virginia, 
by two or three successive acts, had carried the five per cent, 
standing duty on imported slaves as liigh as twenty per cent. 
This dutv havins: " been found verv burdensome to the fair 
purchaser, a great disadvantage to the settlement and improve- 
ment of the lands in the colony, int reductive of many frauds, 
and not to answer the end thereby intended, inasmuch as 
the same prevents the importation of slaves, and thereby 



*' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 265 

lessens the fund arising from the duty/' it was now reduced 
to ten per cent — a positive and distinct legislative assertion, 
notwithstanding what Jefferson has represented to the con- 
trary, that Virginia duty on slaves was imposed for revenue 
only. 

The proprietaries of Pennsylvania, disgusted at Denny's 
faithlessness, had prevailed upon Hamilton to accept again 
the office of deputy-governor. But, to obtain means for fur- 
nishing the quota of that province toward the approaching 
campaign, he was obliged, like his predecessor, to consent to 
a tax on the proprietary estates. Bound by the consent of 
their deputy, though given against their instruction — for 
such was the constitutional doctrine established in Pennsyl- 
vania — the Penns petitioned for the royal veto on eleven acts 
which Denny had passed, including the tax act above referred 
to. Franklin, as an agent for the Assembly on the one hand, 
and the proprietaries on the other, were heard by their counsel 
before the Board of Trade. In giving their decision, the 
Lords of Trade commented in very severe terms on the collu- 
sion between the Assembly and Denny, evinced by a grant 
to the governor of a distinct sum of money for consenting to 
each of these eleven obnoxious acts. The other acts were 
disallowed ; but, on the great point of the right to tax the 
proprietary estates, the Assembly triumphed. The Board of 
Trade required, indeed, certain modifications of the act, to 
which Franklin readily assented on behalf of the province. 
The Assembly gave him a vote of thanks ; but they hesitated 
in fulfilling the agreement he had made ; nor wds it long 
before the dispute with the proprietaries broke out with more 
violence than ever. 

After the fall of Quebec, Vaudreuil, the governor general 
of Canada, had concentrated all his forces at Montreal, and, 
during the winter, had made every possible preparation for 
attempting the recovery of the capital before the garrison 
could be relieved. As soon as the melting of the ice would 
permit, M. De Levi advanced for that purpose with ten thou- 
sand men. The English garrison had suffered during the 
winter for want of fresh provisions. A. thousand soldiers had 
died of the scurvy. Murray could hardly muster three thou- 
sand men fit for duty. Anxious, however, to avoid a siege, 
and trusting to his superior discipline, he marched out, and 

OQ 



266 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

gave battle at Sillery. He was beaten, however, with the 
loss of all his artillery and a thousand men, was driven back 
to Quebec, and besieged there. Some ships, dispatched from 
England very early in the season, presently arrived with 
supplies, anticipating not only the French fleet, but the Eng- 
lish squadron also which had wnitered at Halifax. Alarmed 
at their appearance, and supposing that the whole English 
fleet had arrived, M. De Levi gave over the siege, and retired 
precipitately to Montreal. Against this last stronghold of 
the enemy all eftbrts were now directed. Anxious to com- 
plete the conquest of Canada, the Northern colonies zealously 
contributed. 

Three armies were soon in motion. Amherst, at the head 
of ten thousand men, beside a thousand Indians of the Six 
Nations, led by Johnson, embarked at Oswego,' and sailed 
down the lake and the St. Lawrence to Montreal, where he 
was met by Murray with four thousand men from Quebec. 
Haviland arrived the next day, with a third army of three 
thousand five hundred men, by way of Lake Champlain. The 
force thus assembled w^as*" quite overwhelming. Eesistance 
was not to be thought of. The Erencli governor signed a 
capitulation, by which he gave up not only Montreal, but 
Presque Isle, Detroit, Mackinaw, and all the other posts of 
Western Canada. The regular troops, about four thousand 
men, were to be sent to France. The Canadians were guar- 
anteed their property and worship. 

Nowhere was the general joy of the colonies at the conquest 
of Canada more enthusiastically felt than in New York, of 
which the northern and western limits had so long been in 
dispute with the French. New York had indeed, in those 
directions, no definite boundary, though the Assembly had 
been accustomed to claim, by virtue of alleged cessions from 
the Six Nations, as far north as the outlet of Lake Cham- 
plain, and the whole peninsula between Lakes Ontario and 
Huron — pretensions extended, indeed, even to the peninsula 
of Michigan, and beyond it. 

By the sudden death of Delancey, the administration of 
New York had devolved on Cadwallader Colden, who was 
presently appointed lieutenant-governor. Though now upward 
of sevent^r years of age, Colden continued in that office for 



*' Sam:" or the History of Mystery. 267 

sixteen years ; and, in consequence of the frequent absence 
of the governors, was repeatedly at the head of affairs. 

Great, too, was the exultation in New Eno-land, whose 
eastern and northern frontiers were now finally delivered 
from that scourge of Indian warfare by which they had been 
visited six times within the preceding eighty-five years. The 
Indians themselves, by these successive contests, had been 
almost annihilated. Most of the hostile tribes had emigrated 
to Canada, or else were extinct. There remained only a 
small band of Penobscots, on whom was bestowed a limited 
reservation, still possessed by their degenerate descendants. 

While the northern colonies exulted in safety, the Chero- 
kee war still kept the frontiers of Carolina in alarm. Left 
to themselves by the withdrawal of Montgomery, the Upper 
Cherokees had beleaguered Fort Loudon. After living for 
some time on horse-flesh, the garrison, under a promise of 
safe-conduct to the settlements, had been induced to sur- 
render. But this promise was broken ; attacked on the way, 
a part were killed, and the rest detained as prisoners ; after 
which, the Indians directed all their fury against the fron- 
tiers. On a new application, presently made to Amherst, for 
assistance, the Highland regiment, now commanded by Grant, 
was ordered back to Carolina. (1761.) 

New levies were also made in the province, and Grant 
presently marched into the Cherokee country with two thou- 
sand six hundred men. In a second battle, near the same spot 
with the fight of the previous year, the Indians were driven 
back with loss. Etchoe, with the other villages of the Mid- 
dle Cherokees, was plundered and burned, and all the grow- 
ing corn destroyed. The Indians took refuge in the defiles 
of the mountains, and, subdued and humbled, sued for peace. 
As the condition on which alone it would be granted, they 
were required to deliver up four warriors, to be shot at the 
head of the army, or to furnish four green Indian scalps 
within twenty days. A personal application to Governor 
Bull, by an old chief, long known for his attachment to the 
English, procured a relinquishment of this brutal demand, 
and peace was presently made, without any further effusion 
of blood. 

The English arms were thus everywhere triumphant ; but 
as the French might attempt the re-conquest of Canada, the 



268 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

colonies were still required to keep up tlieir quotas at two- 
tliirds of the former amount. The Trench officers in Canada, 
in the course of the war, had been guilty of immense pecu- 
lations. There was outstanding, in unpaid hills on France, 
and in card or paper money, more than twenty millions of 
dollars, a large portion of it, as the French court contended, 
fraudulently issued. But a very small indemnity was ever 
obtained by the holders of this paper, the payment of which 
had been suspended immediately after the capture of Quebec. 

Having obtained an appointment as governor of South 
Carolina, on which, however, he never entered, after a very 
popular administration, Pownall had been succeeded as gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, by Francis Bernard, late governor 
of New Jersey, where Thomas Boone, and, on his speedy re- 
moval to South Carolina, Josiah Hardy supplied his place. 

The British merchants loudly complained of a trade car- 
ried on by the northern colonies, not only with the neutral 
ports of St. Thomas and Eustatius, but directly with the 
French islands, under flags of truce granted by the colonial 
governors nominally for an exchange of prisoners, but in- 
tended, in fact, as mere covers for a commerce, whereby the 
French fleets, garrisons, and islands in the West Indies were 
supi^lied with provisions and other necessaries. Pitt had is- 
sued strict orders to put a stop to this trade ; but it was too 
profitable to be easily suppressed. The colonists, indeed, 
maintained that it was policy to make as much money out of 
the enemy as possible, and they cited the example of the 
Dutch, who had fought with the Spaniards and traded with 
them at the same time. 

Bernard, a great stickler for the authority of the mother 
country, found an able coadjutor in Thomas Hutchinson, 
late speaker of the House of Eepresentatives, and now a 
counselor, whose zeal for the crown and appetite for emolu- 
ment, had been rewarded by the office of judge of probate 
for Suffolk county, and, on Phipps's death, by the post of 
lieutenant-governor, to which was now added the place of 
chief justice, much to the disappointment of Otis, Hutchin- 
son's successor as speaker, to whom Pownall had promised a 
seat on the bench. The strict enforcement of the acts of 
trade, attempted by Bernard, had provoked a strenuous opposi- 
tion, and the custom-house officers had applied to the Superior 



" Sam :" oe, the History of Mystery. 269 

Court to o-rant them writs of assistance, accorclino; to the 
E iglisli Exchequer practice — warrants, that is, to search, 
when and where they pleased, for smuggled goods, and to 
call in the aid of others to assist them. To oppose the issue 
of these writs, the merchants retained Oxenbridge Thatcher 
and James Otis. Thatcher was a leading practitioner in Bos- 
ton. Otis, son of the speaker, a young lawyer of brilliant 
talents and ardent temperament, was advocate of the Admir- 
alty, and in that capacity bound to argue for the issue of the 
writs. But he resigned his office, and accepted the retainer 
of the merchants. Not content with Thatcher's merely legal 
and technical objections, Otis took high ground as to the 
rights of the colonies. He assailed the acts of trade as op- 
pressive in some instances and unconstitutional in others, and 
by his vehement eloquence gave a tone to public sentiment, 
not without serious influence on subsequent events. The 
writs were granted, but they were so excessively unpopular 
as to be seldom used. Elected a representative from Boston, 
Otis became a leading member of the House, and a warm 
opponent of Hutchinson, whom he endeavored to exclude 
from the council by a bill declaring the places of chief jus- 
tice and counselor incompatible with each other. But Hutch- 
inson's influence was considerable, enough to defeat this bill. 
Another, which passed, requiring the oath of a custom-house 
officer to justify the issue of a writ of assistance, was rejected 
by the governor. 

The accession of the young king, George III, though it 
introduced some new members into the cabinet, had made no 
immediate change of policy. (1760.) Canada conquered, 
the British arms had been turned ao'ainst the French islands 
in the West Indies. Guadaloupe had been already captured. 
(1761.) General Moncton, after producing to the council of 
New York his commission as governor, sailed from that port 
with two line-of-battle ships, a hundred transports, and twelve 
thousand regular and colonial troops. Gates went out with 
him as aid-de-camp, and carried to England the news of the 
capture of Martinique. Montgomery, afterward, as well 
as Gates — a general of the revolutionary army — held in 
this expedition the rank of captain. The colonial troops 
were led by General Lyman. The successes of Moncton 
v\'ere not limited to Martinique. Grenada, St. Lucie, and 



270 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

St. Vincent's — every island, in fact, which the French pos- 
sessed in the Caribbee group, fell into the hands of the British. 

The French fleet was ruined. French merchantmen were 
driven from the seas. British vessels, including many from 
New York and New England, acquired the carrying trade, 
not of the conquered islands onty, but, under safe-conducts 
and flag^ of truce, of the larger and more wealthy colony of 
St. Domingo. This lucrative commerce, with the profits of 
privateering and of supplying provisions for the British fleets 
and armies, made the war very popular in America, and 
Pitt an idol ; but that " great Commoner," as he delighted 
to be called, had ceased to be minister. 

Charles III., on whom the crown of Spain had lately 
devolved, had never forgotten nor forgiven a threat of bom- 
bardment by a British admiral, to which, at a former period, 
when King of Naples, he had been obliged to yield. As 
King of Spain, he had signed with France a treaty known as 
the Family Compact, amounting substantially to an alliance 
offensive and defensive. Pitt had secret information of this 
treaty, and wished at once to declare war against Spain. But 
Pitt was an object of jealousy and dislike to the young king, 
desirous to secure for himself a more active participation in 
aff'airs than had been enjoyed by his two predecessors. The 
ministry split on this point, Pitt retired from office, and the 
king hastened to raise to the head of the administration the 
Marquis of Bute, his late preceptor. Yet, scarcely had Pitt 
left the ministry, when hostilities commenced on the part of 
Spain — a step which cost that declining monarchy dear. The 
Spanish colonial commerce was cut oft* by cruisers, and pre- 
sently Havana, the key of the Gulf of Mexico, was taken by 
a British armament. 

The present contest for territorial and commercial suprem- 
acy had extended even to the East Indies, thus, as it were, 
encircling the globe. A twenty years' struggle in Hindostan, 
between the French and English East India Companies, had 
ended in tlie complete triumph of the English, securing to 
them the dominion of the Carnatic and Bengal — the begin- 
ning of that career of territorial aggrandizement in India, 
since so remarkably carried out. 

With finances almost ruined, powerless to struggle any 
longer against such a succession of losses, the French court 



" Sam : or, the History of Mystery. 271 

was obliged to abandon the contest, and with it all claim to 
territorial possessions on the North American continent. The 
island and city of New Orleans, with all of Louisiana west 
of the Mississippi, were ceded to Spain, in consideration of 
her losses in the war. Louisiana, thus given to the .Span- 
iards, contained about ten thousand inhabitants. The trans- 
fer was very disagreeable to them, and six years elapsed before 
the Spanish actually took possession. 

By the treaty of Fontainebleau, all the vast region east of 
JMississippi, the island of New Orleans excepted, was yielded 
up to the British. Spain also ceded Florida in exchange for 
Havana. Thus was vested in the British crown, so far as 
the consent of rival European claimants could give it, the 
sovereignty of the whole eastern half of North America, from 
the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay and the Polar Ocean, 
including hundreds of thousands of square miles upon which 
the foot of the white man had never yet trod. By the terms 
of the treaty, the navigation of the Mississippi, from its 
source to its mouth, was to be free to both parties, without 
liability to stoppage, search, or duty. 

Martinique, Guadaloupe, and St. Lucie, islands of the Car- 
ribee group, which some politicians wished Great Britain to 
retain instead of Canada, were restored to France ; also her 
former rights in the Newfoundland fishery. Beside Canada 
and its appurtenances. Great Britain received also St. Vin- 
cent's, Dominica, and Tobago, islands hitherto called neutral, 
and the two former still possessed by the native Lidian inhab- 
itants — the French and English not having hitherto been 
able to agree which should be allowed to take possession of 
them. These islands were erected, by proclamation, into the 
government of Grenada. (1763.) 

The same proclamation erected on the continent the three 
new British provinces of East Florida, West Florida, and 
Quebec. East Florida was bounded on the north by the St. 
Mary's, the intervening region thence to the Altamaha being 
annexed to Georgia. The boundaries of West Florida were 
the Appalachicola, the Gulf of Mexico, the Misssissippi, Lakes 
Ponchartrain and ]\Iaurepas ; and on the north, the thirty- 
first degree of north latitude, for which, however, was sub- 
stituted, the next year, a line due east from the mouth of 



272 "Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

the Yazoo, so as to include the French settlements about 
Natchez. The boundary assigned to the province of Quebec 
corresponded with the claims of New York and JMassachu- 
setts, being a line from the southern end of Lake Nepissing, 
striking the St. Lawrence at the forty -fifth degree of north 
latitude, and following that parallel across the foot of Lake 
Champlain to the sources of the Connecticut, and thence along 
the highlands which separate the waters flowing into the St. 
Lawrence from those which fall into the sea. 

By the same proclamation, grants of land were authorised 
to the reduced officers and discharged soldiers who had served 
during the war — five thousand acres each to field officers, 
three thousand to captains, two thousand to subalterns and 
staff officers, two hundred to non-commissioned officers, and 
fifty to privates. To prevent the mischiefs and disputes 
which had grown out of the purchase of Lidian lands by pri- 
vate individuals, all such purchases within the crown colonies 
were in future to be made only by public treaty, and for the 
use of the crown ; nor, except in Quebec and West Florida, 
were any lands to be taken up beyond the heads of the rivers 
flowing into the Atlantic. These provisions were designed to 
restrain the backwoodsmen, and to prevent Indian hostilities ; 
but already, before the proclamation had been issued, a new 
ana alarming Lidian war had broken out. 

Since the capture of Fort Du Quesne, settlers from Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland, and Virginia had poured over the moun- 
tains, very little scrupulous in their conduct toward the 
Lidians, w^ho began to see and feel the danger of being soon 
driven to new migrations. Perhaps, too, their prejudices 
were influenced — so at least the colonists thought — by the 
arts of French fur traders, who dreaded the competition of 
English rivals. The Dolawares and the Shawnese, wlio had 
lately migrated from Pennsylvania, and who now occupied 
the banks of the IMuskingum, Scioto, and Miami, seem to 
have taken the lead in a widespread confederacy, of which 
Pontiac, a Shawnese chief, is represented to have been the 
moving spirit. It included not caily the tribes lately the 
allies of the French, but the Senecas also, the most western 
clan of the Six Nations. The other five clans, though not 
without much difficulty, were kept quiet by Sir William 
Johnson. 



" Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 273 

A simultaneous attack was unexpectedly made along the 
whole frontier of Pennsylvania and Virginia. The English 
traders scattered through the region beyond the mountains, 
were plundered and slain. The posts between, the Ohio and 
Lake Erie were surprised and taken — indeed, all the posts 
in the western country, except Niagara, Detroit, and Fort 
Pitt. The two latter were closely blockaded ; and the troops 
which Amherst hastily sent forward to relieve them, did not 
reach their destination without some verv hard fip-htins:. 

This sudden onslaught, falling heaviest on Pennsylvania, 
excited the ferocity of the back settlers, chiefly Presbyterians 
of Scotch and Irish descent, having very little in common 
with the mild spirit of the Quakers. Well versed in the 
Old Testament, the same notion had obtained among them 
current in early times of New England and Virginia, that 
as the Israelites exterminated the Canaanites, so they ought 
to exterminate the bloody, heathen Indians, stigmatized as 
the children of Ham. Under this impression, and imagining 
them to be in correspondence with the hostile Indians, some 
settlers of Paxton township attacked the remnant of a 
friendly tribe, who were living quietly under the guidance 
of Moravian missionaries at Conestoga, on the Susquehanna. 
All who fell into their hands, men, women, and children, 
were ruthlessly murdered. Those who escaped by being 
absent, fled for refuge to Lancaster, and were placed for secu- 
rity in the work-house there. The '' Paxton Boys,'' as they 
called themselves, rushed into Lancaster, broke open the 
doors of the work-house, and perpetrated a new massacre. It 
was in vain that Franklin, lately returned from Europe, 
denounced these murders in an eloquent and indignant pam- 
phlet. Such was the fury of the mob, including many per- 
sons of respectable character and standing, that they even 
marched in arms to Philadelphia, for the destruction of some 
other friendly Indians who had taken refuge in that city. 
Thus beset, these unhappy fugitives attempted to escape to 
New York, to put themselves under the protection of Sir 
William Johnson, the Indian agent ; but Lieutenant-governor 
Golden refused to allow them to enter that province. 

John Penn, son and presumptive heir of Kichard Penn, 
one of the joint proprietors, had lately arrived in Pennsyl- 
vania, to take Hamilton's place as governor. Politics still 



274 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

ran very high ; hut, in this emergency, the aid and advice 
of Franklin, the head of the opposition, and speaker of the 
Assemhly, were eagerly sought. Owing to the royal veto 
on the late axi't for a volunteer militia, and the repeated re- 
fusals of the Assemhly to estahlish a compulsive one, there 
was no organized military force in the province, except a few 
regular troops in the barracks at Philadelphia. By Frank- 
lin's aid, a strong body of volunteers, for the defense of the 
city, was speedily enrolled. When the insurgents approached, 
Franklin went out to meet them ; and, after a long negocia- 
tion, and agreeing to allow them to appoint two delegates to 
lay their grievances hefore the Assemhly, they were persuaded 
to disperse without further bloodshed. So ended this most 
disgraceful affair. There was no power in the province ade- 
quate to punish these outrages. The Christian Indians 
presently re-established themselves high up the eastern 
branch of the Susquehanna. Five or six years after, des- 
tined yet to suffer further outrages, they migrated to the 
country northwest of the Ohio, and settled, with their mis- 
sionaries, in three villages on the Muskingum. 

General Gage, successor to Amherst as commander-in- 
chief of the British forces in America, had called upon the 
colonies for troops to assist in subduing the Indians. So 
extensive was the combination, that Major Loftus, while 
attempting to ascend the Mississippi with four hundred men, 
to take possessisn of the Illinois country, was attacked near 
the present site of Fort Adams, and obliged to give over the 
enterprise. New England, remote from the seat of danger, 
answered Gage's call scantily and reluctantly. Virginia 
furnished seven hundred men, and Pennsylvania one thou- 
sand. A pack of blood-hounds was sent out from England. 
Two expeditions were j^resently organized and sent into the 
Indian country, one under Bouquet, by way of Pittsburg, the 
other, under Bradstreet, along the lakes. The Indians, 
finding themselves thus vigorously attacked, consented to a 
treaty, by which they agreed to give up all prisoners, and to 
relinquish all claim to lands within gun-shot of any fort, of 
which, the British were authorized to build as many as they 
chose. Indians committing murders on white men were to 
be given up, to be tried by a jury, half Indians and half 
colonists. (1764.) 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Condition of tlie Colonies at the conclusion of the Fourth Intercolonial 
War — Theory of the English Parliament — Grenville's Scheme of Colonial 
Taxation — Passage and Repeal of the Stamp Act. 

That war by whicli tlie possession of North America had 
heen confirmed to the English crown, had not been carried 
on without great efforts and sacrifices on the part of the col- 
onists. By disease or the sword, thirty thousand colonial 
soldiers had fallen in the struggle. An expense had been 
incurred of upward of sixteen millions of dollars, of which 
only about five millions had been reimbursed by Parliament. 
Massachusetts alone had kept from four to seven thousand 
men in the field, beside garrisons, and recruits to the regular 
regiments. These men, it is true, served but a few months 
in the year. At the approach of winter they were generally 
disbanded, and for every campaign a new army had to be 
raised. They were fed at British cost ; yet in the course of 
the war the expenses of Massachusetts, exclusive of all par- 
liamentary reimbursements, had amounted to two millions 
and a half of dollars, all of which had been raised without 
resort to paper money, though not without incurring a heavy 
debt in addition to severe taxation. Connecticut, in the same 
period, expended not less than two million dollars. The out- 
standing debt of New York was near a million. If the 
expenditures of the southern colonies had been less profuse, 
they had far exceeded all former experience. Virginia, at 
the close of the war, had a debt of eight hundred thousand 
dollars. (1763.) 

The New England clergy complained that the morals of 
their parishioners had been corrupted by service in the 
armies ; and more disinterested observers might be willing to 

(275) 



276 ''Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

admit tliat the reverential simplicity of rural life, however 
tinged by superstition, was ill exchanged for any liberality 
of opinions or polish of manners to be acquired in a camp. 
Yet the intermixture of troops from various colonies, must 
have tended to enlarge the circle of ideas, and partially to 
do away with local prejudices ; while, co-operation in a common 
object, had impressed upon the colonial mind the idea of 
union and a common interest. 

The royal and proprietary governors, to obtain the neces- 
sary supplies, had been obliged to yield to perpetual encroach- 
ments. The expenditure of the great sums voted by the 
Assemblies had been kept, for the most part, in their own 
hands, or those of their specially appointed agents; and, 
contrary to what usually happens, executive influence had 
been weakened instead of strengthened by the war, or rather, 
had been transferred from the o;overnors to the colonial 
Assemblies. 

In the prosecution of hostilities, much of the hardest and 
most dangerous service had fallen to the share of the colonial 
levies, employed especially as scouts and light troops. Though 
exceedingly disgusted by the superiority always assumed by 
the British regular officers, and allowed them by the rules 
of the service, the long continuance and splendid successes 
of the war, had filled the colonies with a martial spirit, and 
the idea of martial force had grown familiar, as a method, at 
once expedient and glorious, of settling disputed points of 
authority and right. 

With colonies thus taught their strength and resources, 
full of trained soldiers, accustomed to extraordinary efforts 
and partial co-operation, the British ministry now entered on 
a new struggle — one, of which all like former contests, were 
but as faint types and forerunners. It was proposed to main- 
tain in America ten thousand troops as a peace establishment, 
nominally for the defense of the colonies ; perhaps also, in 
fact, as a support to that superintending metropolitan author- 
ity, of which the weakness had been sensibly felt on various 
occasions during the war. The outbreak of the western 
Indians served, however, to show that some sort of a peace 
establishment was really necessary. 

Four great wars within seventy years, had overwhelmed 
Great Britain with heavy debts and excessive taxation. Her 



"Sam:^^ or, the History of Mystery. 277 

recent conquests, so far from relieving her embarrassments, 
had greatlv increased that debt, which now amounted to 
£140,000,000, near ^700,000,000. Even in the midst of 
the late struggle, in the success of which thej had so direct 
an interest, the military contributions of the colonial Assem- 
blies had been sometimes reluctant and capricious, and always 
irregular and unequal. They might, perhaps, refuse to con- 
tribute at all toward a standing army in time of peace, of 
which they would naturally soon come to be jealous. It 
seemed necessary, therefore, by some exertion of metropoli- 
tan authority, to extract from the colonies, for this purpose, 
a regular and certain revenue. 

At the very commencement of the late war, the Board of 
Trade had proposed a scheme of parliamentary taxation for 
the colonies. In the course of the war, Pitt had intimated 
to more than one colonial governor, that, when it was over, 
the authority of Parliament would be exerted to draw from 
America the means for its own defense. Peace was no 
sooner established, than Pitt's successors in the ministry 
hastened to carry out the scheme thus foreshadowed. 

That Parliament possessed a certain authority over the 
colonies, in some respects super-eminent, was admitted by all ; 
but the exact limits of that authority had never been very 
accurately settled. As against the royal prerogative, the 
colonists had been easier to claim the benefits of Eno-lish 
law; not the common law only, but all statutes, such as the 
Habeas Corpus Act, of a remedial and popular character. 
There were other statutes, however, the Mutiny Act, for in- 
stance, from which they sought to escape on the ground of 
non-extension to America. Against the interference of Par- 
liament in matters of trade, most of the colonies, especially 
those of New England, had carried on a pertinacious struggle. 
In spite, however, of opposition, that interference had been 
extended from the tracle of the colonies with foreign nations 
and each other, to many other matters but remotely connected 
with it. By the English post-office system, introduced into 
America, the transportation of mails and the rates of postage 
had been regulated. Parliament had interfered with the 
colonial currency, establishing the standard in coin, and re- 
stricting the issue of paper notes. Joint-stock companies, 
with more than a certain number of partners, had been 



278 "Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

prohibited. The collection of debts had been regulated. A 
uniform law of naturalization had been established. Parlia- 
ment had prohibited or restricted certain trades and manu- 
factures, and had even assumed to legislate respecting the 
administration of oaths. All or most of these exertions of 
authority had been protested against at the time ; but the 
colonists had yielded at last, and the power of regulating 
colonial trade for the exclusive benefit of the mother country, 
exercised for two or three generations, and sustained by a 
system of custom-house ofiicers and Admiralty courts, had 
acquired, in spite of unpopularity and a systematic evasion 
still extensively practiced, the character and attributes of a 
legal vested right. (1763.) 

The super-eminent power of all, that of levying taxes for 
revenue. Parliament had never exercised. The rates of post- 
age, of which the payment was voluntary, might be con- 
sidered not so much a tax as an equivalent for services 
rendered. The intercolonial duties on " enumerated articles,^^ 
producing little more than sufficient to pay the expenses of 
the custom-houses, had for their professed object, not revenue, 
but the regulation of trade. The trifling surplus paid into 
the British treasury was but a mere incident to that regula- 
tion.N Yet the colonial custom-houses, though hitherto main- 
tained with no intention of collecting taxes, might easily be 
adapted to that purpose ; and, as the colonists were already 
accustomed to the payment of parliamentary duties, they 
might not readily distinguish between duties for regulation 
and duties for revenue. 

A part of the new scheme, as suggested to Parliament by 
Lord Grenville, Bute's chancellor of the Exchequer, appears 
to have proceeded on this idea. In spite of recent vigilance 
in the enforcement of the acts of trade, the Molasses Act was 
still extensively evaded. By reducing the duties exacted 
under that act, now about to expire, Grenville proposed to 
diminish the temptation to smuggle ; and, while seeming thus 
to confer a boon on the colonies, by opening to them, under 
moderated duties, the trade with the foreign sugar islands, 
by the same process, to convert the Molasses Act from a mere 
regulation of trade, into a source of revenue, to be enhanced 
by duties on other foreign products. Had the proposition 
stopped here, there might have been some chance of gradually 



" Sam: ^^ or, the History of Mystery. 279 

forcing on the colonies tlie practice of parliamentary taxation. 
But the amount which could thus be raised would not suffice 
for the object in view, and Grenville proposed, in addition, a 
stamp tax — an impost, in several respects, much like those 
of the custom-house, and verj like them in facility of collec- 
tion. All bills, bonds, notes, leases, policies of insurance, 
papers used in legal proceedings, and a great many other 
documents, in order to be held valid in courts of law, were 
to be written on stamped paper, sold by public officers ap- 
pointed for that purpose, at prices which levied a stated tax 
on every such document. Stamp duties, said to be an inven- 
tion of the Dutch, thouo-li Ioup- familiar in England, were 
as yet almost unknown in America, where only one or two 
colonies had made some slight trial of them. 

Shortly after the final treaty of peace, Grenville laid this 
plan before Parliament, not for immediate action, but by 
way of information and notice. The colonial agents, or some 
of them, wrote to America for instructions, but the public 
mind was engrossed by the sudden renewal of the war on the 
western frontier, and Grenville's proposition hardly attracted 
so much attention as might have been expected. The As- 
sembly of Pennsylvania was content with simply stating a 
willingness "to aid the crown according to their ability, 
whenever required in the usual constitutional manner." 
They even proposed to forward a plan by which all the colo- 
nies might be made to contribute fairly and equitably to the 
public defense ; but that idea they soon abandoned. 

Bollan, so long the agent of Massachusetts, had been lately 
dismissed, and the place given to Jasper Manduit, whose 
letters, containing an account of Grenville's proposals, were 
laid before the General Court at an adjourned session. There 
seems at this moment to have been a lull in the politics of 
that province. The excitement growing out of the question 
of writs of assistance had subsided. Hutchinson, who still 
sat in the council^ in spite of Otis's attempt to exclude him, 
had a principal hand in drawing up the instructions to the 
agent. They suggested, indeed, the right of the colonists to 
tax themselves, but in a very moderate tone. It was even 
voted to send Hutchinson as a special agent to England ; but 
this was prevented by Governor Bernard,who thought it irregu- 
lar for the lieutenant-governor to be absent from the province. 



280 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

At the next session of Parliament, Grenville, now prime 
minister, brouglit forward liis scheme of taxation in a more 
formal shape. After a debate which excited very little 
interest or attention, the House of Commons resolved, without 
a division, " that Parliament had a right to tax the colonies," 
and they recommended such a stamp act as the minister had 
proposed. 

Further action as to this stamp tax was, however, delayed, 
to give the colonists an opportunity for suggesting, if they 
chose, some more satisfactory means for raising the half mil- 
lion of dollars which the minister required. The other part 
of the ministerial scheme was at once carried out by a law 
known as the " Sugar Act," reducing by one half, the duties 
imposed by the old Molasses Act on foreign sugar and molasses 
imported into the colonies ; levying duties on coftee, pimento, 
French and East India goods, and wines from Madeira and the 
Azores, which hitherto had been free ; and adding iron and 
lumber to the list of " enumerated articles," which could not 
be exported, except to England. Openly avowing in its pre- 
amble the purpose of " raising a revenue for defraying the 
expenses of defending, protecting, and securing his majesty's 
dominions in America," this act gave increased jurisdiction 
to the colonial Admiralty courts, and provided new and more 
efficient means for enforcing the collection of the revenue. 

Partial accounts of these proceedings having reached Mas- 
sachusetts previous to the annual election, the town of Boston 
took occasion to instruct its newly-chosen representatives to 
use all their efforts against the pending plan of parliament 
taxation, and for the repeal of any such acts already passed. 
These instructions, drafted by Samuel Adams, contained the 
first decided protest against Grenville's scheme. Among 
other things, they suggested the expediency of a combination 
of all the colonies for the defense of their common interests. 

At the session which speedily followed, the House of Kep- 
resentatives resolved, " that the imposition of duties and 
taxes by the Parliament of Great Britain, upon a people not 
represented in the House of Commons, is absolutely irrecon- 
cilable with their rights." A pamphlet, lately published by 
Otis, " The Eights of the British Colonies asserted," was 
read and approved. A copy was transmitted to the agent in 
England, and along ynth it an energetic letter. " The silence 



" Sam :" or, the History of Mystery. 281 

of the province/' said this letter, alluding to a suggestion of 
the agent, that he had taken silence for consent, " should 
have been imputed to any cause — even to despair — rather 
than be construed into a tacit cession of their rights, or the 
acknowledgment of a right in the Parliament of Great Britain 
to impose duties and taxes on a people who are not rep- 
resented in the House of Commons/' "If we are not 
represented, we are slaves 1'' 

Following up the suggestions of the Boston instructions, a 
committee was appointed to correspond, during the recess, 
with the Assemblies of the other colonies. 

These energetic measures, warmly supported by Thatcher 
and Otis, were adopted just at the close of the session, and 
in Hutchinson's absence. The concurrence of the council was 
not asked. Not that any open advocates for parliamentary 
taxation were to be found in that body ; even Governor Ber- 
nard avowed his opposition, at least, to the proposed Stamp 
Act ; but the council, for years past very much under Hutch- 
inson's influence, was composed of wealthy and moderate 
men, who might not choose to venture on so vigorous a 
remonstrance. 

Otis's pamphlet on colonial rights conceded to Parliament 
a superintending power to enact laws and regulations for the 
public good — a power limited, however, by the "natural 
rights of man," and " the constitutional rights of British 
subjects," claimed as the birthright of all born in the colo- 
nies. It was maintained as one of these rights, that taxes 
could not be levied on the people, "but by their consent in 
person or by deputation." The distinction was scouted be- 
tween external and internal taxes, meaning in the one case, 
taxes on trade, and in the other, taxes on land and personal 
property. If trade might be taxed without the consent of 
the colonists, so might land and houses. Taxes of either 
kind were pronounced " absolutely irreconcilable with the 
rights of the colonists as British subjects and as men." Yet 
nothing like forcible resistance was hinted at. " There 
would be an end to all governments, if one, or a number of 
subjects or subordinate provinces, should take upon them so 
far to judge of the justice of an act of Parliament, as to 
refuse obedience to it." "Forcibly resisting the Parliament 
and the king's laws is high treason." " Therefore let the 
24 



282 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

Parliament lay what burdens tliey please on us, we must, 
it is our duty to submit, and 2:)atiently bear them till they 
will be pleased to relieve us." Such, at this moment, were 
the public professions, and most probably the private opinions 
of the strongest advocates of the ri,o;hts of the colonists — at 
least of those who had been bred, like Otis, to the profession 
of the law. But this doctrine of patient submission to injus- 
tice, w^as not of a sort to go down in America. 

Thatcher also published a tract against the scheme of par- 
liamentary taxation, and similar tracts were put forth in 
Eh ode Island "by authority;" in Maryland by Dulany, sec- 
retary of the province ; and in Virginia by Bland, a leading 
member of the House of Burgesses. 

The opposition of Massachusetts to the new " Sugar Act," 
was presently re-echoed from Pennsylvania, and strong in- 
structions to oppose the whole scheme of taxation were given 
to Franklin, about to depart for England as the agent for 
the colony, to solicit the overthrow of the proprietary govern- 
ment. 

At the adjourned session of the Massachusetts General 
Court, the powerful influence of Hutchinson again became 
obvious. ■ The House adopted a strong petition to Parlia- 
ment, drawn by a committee of which Otis was chairman. 
The council refused to concur. A joint committee then ap- 
pointed, reported a petition to the House of Commons, drafted 
by Hutchinson, and not at all to the taste of the more ardent 
patriots. Yet, after some alterations, it was adopted by the 
Court. A letter to the agent, in a somewhat more decided 
tone, spoke of self-taxation as the right of the colony, not 
as a mere usage and favor, in which light the petition seemed 
to regard it. 

Connecticut, following in the steps of Massachusetts, 
adopted the same moderate tone. The Assembly of New 
York agreed to a petition much more strongly expressed — 
so strongly, that no member of Parliament could be found to 
present it. This petition, adopted and re-echoed by Rhode 
Island, made the Massachusetts leaders still more dissatisfied 
with the tameness of theirs. 

In the Virginia House of Burgesses, Peyton Randolph, tlie 
attorney-general, conspicuous formerly in the controversy 
with Dinwiddie. Richard Henry Lee. son of a former president 



"Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 283 

of the council, George Wythe, and Edmund Pendleton, all 
distinguished lawyers and leaders of the colonial aristocracy, 
were appointed a committee to draw up a petition to the king, 
a memorial to the House of Lords, and a remonstrance to the 
Commons. These papers claimed for the colony, the priv- 
ilege of self-taxation ; hut their tone was very moderate. 
Instead of relying on the matter of right, they dwelt at 
length on the emharassments and poverty of the province, 
encumhered by the late war with a heavy debt. 

These faint protestations produced no effect on the made 
up minds of the British ministers. In spite of remonstrances 
addressed to Grenville by Franklin, Jackson, the newly-ap- 
pointed agent of Massachusetts, IngersoU, the agent for 
Connecticut, and other gentlemen interested in the colonies, 
a bill for collecting a stamp tax in America was presently 
brought in. The London merchants concerned in the Amer- 
ican trade petitioned against it ; but a convenient rule not to 
receive petitions against money bills, excluded this as well as 
those from the colonial Assemblies. In reply to Colonel 
Barre, wdio had served in America, and who made a speech 
against the bill, Townshend, one of the ministers, spoke of 
the colonists as " children, planted by our care, nourished by 
our indulgence, and protected by our arms." Barre's indig- 
nant retort produced a great sensation in the House. " They 
planted by your care ? No ; your oppressions planted them 
in America." " They nourished by your indulgence ? They 
grew up by your neglect of them." " Tliey protected by 
your arms? Those sons of liberty have nobly taken up 
arms in your defense. I claim to know more of America 
than most of you, having been resident in that country. 
The people, I believe, are as truly loyal subjects as the king- 
has, but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vin- 
dicate them, should they ever be violated. But the subject 
is too delicate ; I will say no more." Barre placed his oppo- 
sition on the ground of expediency ; General Conway, and 
Alderman Beckford, one of the London members, denounced 
the bill as unjust. It passed, however, in the Commons, five 
to one ; in the Lords there was no division nor the slightest 
opposition. (1765.) 

A clause inserted into the annual Mutiny Act, carried out 
another part of the ministerial scheme, by authorizing as 



284 '' Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 

many troops to be sent to America as the ministers saw fit. 
For these troops, by a special enactment, known as "the 
Quartering Act," the colonies in which they might be sta- 
tioned, were required to find quarters, fire-wood, bedding, 
drink, soap, and candles. 

News of the passage of these acts, reached Virginia while 
the Assembly was sitting. The aristocratic leaders in that 
body hesitated. The session approached its close, and not 
one word seemed likely to be said. But the rights of the 
colonies did not fail of an advocate. Patrick Henry had 
already attracted the attention of the House, by his suc- 
cessful opposition to Robinson's proposed paper money 
loan, as mentioned in the previous chapter. Finding the 
older and more w^eighty members unlikely to move, he 
assumed the responsibility of introducing a series of resolu- 
tions, which claimed for the inhabitants of Virginia all the 
rights of born British subjects; denied any authority any- 
where, except in the provincial Assembly, to impose taxes 
upon them ; and denounced the attempt to vest that authori- 
ty elsewhere, as inconsistent with the ancient Constitution, 
and subversive of British as well as of American liberty. 
Upon the introduction of these resolutions, a hot debate en- 
sued. " Caesar had his Brutus," said Henry, " Charles I. his 
Cromwell, and George III. — " " Treason ! treason !" shouted 
the speaker, and the cry was re-echoed from the House. 
" George HI.," said Henry, firmly, "may profit by their ex- 
ample. If that be treason, make the most of it !" In spite 
of the opposition of all the old leaders, the resolutions passed, 
the fifth and most emphatic, by a majority of only one vote. 
The next day, in Henry's absence, the resolutions were recon- 
sidered, softened, and the fifth struck out. But a manuscript 
copy had already been sent to Philadelphia ; and, circulating 
through the colonies in their original form, these resolutions 
gave everywhere a strong impulse to the popular feeling. 

Before these Virginia resolutions reached Massachusetts, 
the General Court had met, at its annual session. Consider- 
ing " the many difficulties to which the colonies are, and 
must be reduced by the operation of some late acts of Par- 
liament," the House of Representatives appointed a commit- 
tee of nine, to consider what steps the emergency demanded. 
That committee recommended a convention or congress, to be 



" Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 285 

campos?d of " committees from the Houses of Kepresenta- 
tives or Burgesses in the several colonies," to meet at New 
York on the first Tuesday of October following, there to con- 
sult " on the difficulties in which the colonies were, and must 
be placed by the late acts of Parliament levying duties and 
taxes upon them ;" and, further, " to consider of a general 
and humble address to his majesty and the Parliament, to 
implore relief." Even the partisans of Bernard judged it 
best to concur in the adoption of this report ; and they con- 
gratulated themselves that Kuggles and Partridge, two of 
the committee appointed to represent Massachusetts at the 
congress, were " prudent and discreet men, fast friends of 
government." The third was James Otis. A circular let- 
ter, addressed to all the other colonies, recommended similar 
appointments. Governor Pitch and a majority of the Con- 
necticut assistants, seemed inclined to submit to the Stamp 
Act, but Trumbull and others loudly protested against it, and 
the popular feeling was all on their side. 

The stamps were to be prepared in Great Britain, and sent 
to officers in the colonies, appointed to sell them. Anxious 
to make this unpopular measure as palatable as possible, the 
colonial agents were consulted as to the persons fit to be ap- 
pointed. So little did even Franklin foresee the result, that 
he procured that office at Philadelphia for one of his particu- 
lar friends and supporters. He also advised Ingersoll, 
the Connecticut agent, to accept that appointment for his 
own colony. 

Before the stamps reached America, symptoms of a violent 
ferment appeared. A great elm in Boston, at the corner of 
the present Washington and Essex Streets, under which the 
opponents of the Stamp Act were accustomed to assemble, 
soon became famous as " liberty tree." Those persons sup- 
posed to favor the ministry were hung in effigy on the 
branches of this elm. A mob attacked the house of Oliver, 
secretary of the colony, who had been appointed stamp dis- 
tributor for Massachusetts, broke his windows, destroyed his 
furniture, pulled down a small building, supposed to be in- 
tended for a stamp office, and frightened Oliver into a 
resignation. Jonathan Mayhew, the able minister of the 
West Church, in Boston — distinguished by some recent con- 
troversial tracts, in which he had severely criticised the 



286 *' Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

conduct of the Society for tlie Propagation of the Gospel, in 
maintaining Episcopal missionaries in New England — preach- 
ed a warm sermon against the Stamp Act, taking for his 
text, " I would they were even cut oft* which trouble you !" The 
Monday evening after this sermon the riots were renewed. 
The mob attacked the house of Story, registrar of the Ad- 
miralty, and destroyed not only the public files and records, 
but his private papers also. Next they entered and plun- 
dered the house of the controller of customs ; and, maddened 
with liquor and excitement, proceeded to the mansion of 
Hutchinson, in North Square. The lieutenant-governor and 
his family fled for their lives. The house was completely 
gutted, and the contents burned in bonfires, kindled in the 
square. Along with Hutchinson's furniture and private pa- 
pers, perished many invaluable manuscripts relating to the 
history of the province, which Hutchinson had been thirty 
years in collecting, and which it was impossible to replace. 

As commonly happens on such occasions, the immediate 
actors in these scenes were persons of no note, the dregs of 
the population. Mayhew sent the next day a special apology 
and disclaimer to Hutchinson. The inhabitants of Boston, 
at a town meeting, unanimously expressed their "abhor- 
rence " of these proceedings ; and a " civic guard '' was organ- 
ized to prevent their repetition. Yet the rioters, though well 
known, went unpunished — a sure sign of the secret concur- 
rence and ffood-will of the mass of the communitv. It is 
only in reliance on such encouragement, that mobs ever 
venture to commit deeds of violence. Those now committed 
were revolutionary acts, designed to intimidate — melancholy 
forerunners of civil war. 

Throughout the northern colonies, associations on the basis 
of forcible resistance to the Stamp Act, under the name of 
" Sons of Liberty"— a title borrowed from Barre's famous 
speech — sprung suddenly into existence. Persons of influ- 
ence and consideration, though they might favor the object, 
kept aloof, however, from so dangerous a combination, which 
consisted of the young, the ardent, those who loved excite- 
ment, and had nothing to lose. The history of these " Sons 
of Liberty " is very obscure ; but they seem to have spread 
rapidly from Connecticut and New York into Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and to liave taken up, as 



" Sam:" or the History of Mystery. 287 

their special business, the intimidation of the stamp officers. 
In all the colonies, those officers were persuaded or compelled 
to resign ; and such stamps as arrived either remained un- 
packed, or else were seized and burned. The Assembly of 
Pennsylvania unanimously adopted a series of resolutions, 
denouncing the Stamp Act as " unconstitutional, and sub- 
versive of their dearest rights." Public meetings to protest 
against it, were held throughout the colonies. The holding 
of such meetings was quite a new incident, and formed a new 
era in colonial history. 

In the midst of this universal excitement, at the day 
appointed by Massachusetts, committees from nine colonies 
met in New York. The Assemblies of Virginia and North 
Carolina not having been in session since the issue of the 
Massachusetts circular, no opportunity had occurred of appoint- 
ing committees. New York was in the same predicament ; 
but a committee of correspondence, appointed at a previous 
session, saw fit to attend. In Georgia, Governor Wright 
refused to call the Assembly together ; but the speaker of 
the House of Representatives, after consulting with a major- 
ity of the members, sent a letter to New York approving the 
proposed congress, and promising to support its measures. 
The New Hampshire House of Representatives gave their 
sanction to the congress, and offered to join in any suitable 
memorial ; but, " owing to the particular state of their affairs" 
by which may be understood the predominant influence of 
Governor Wentworth, they sent no delegates. Dr. Franklin, 
about the close of his first agency in England, had obtained 
the post of Governor of New Jersey, vacated by Hardy, for 
his natural and only son, William Franklin. The new gov- 
ernor, who inherited all the prudence, with none of the patri- 
otic ardor of his father, had prevailed upon the Assembly of 
that province to return a negative answer to the Massachti- 
setts letter ; but this proved so unsatisfactory to the people, 
that the speaker called the members together by circular, 
and delegates were appointed. 

The Congress was organized by the appointment of Rug- 
gles as president. There were present, among other mem- 
bers, beside Otis, of Massachusetts, William Johnson, of 
Connecticut ; Philip Livingston, qf New York ; John Dickin- 
son, of Pennsvlvania ; Thomas M'Kean, of Delaware, and 



288 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

Christopher Gadsden and John Eutledge, of South Carolina, 
all subsequently distinguished in the history of the Eevolu- 
tion. A rule was adopted, giving to each colony represented, 
one vote. 

In the course of a three weeks' session, a Declaration of 
the Eights and Grievances of the Colonies was agreed to. 
All the privileges of Englishmen were claimed by this decla- 
tion, as the birthright of the colonists — among the rest, the 
right of being taxed only by their own consent. Since dis- 
tance and local circumstances made a representation in the 
British Parliament impossible, these representatives, it was 
maintained, could be no other than the several colonial Legis- 
latures. Thus was given a flat negative to a scheme lately 
broached in England by Pownall and others, for allowing to 
the colonies a representation in Parliament, a project to which 
both Otis and Franklin seem at first to have leaned. 

A petition to the king, and memorials to each House of 
Parliament were also prepared, in which the cause of the 
colonies was eloquently pleaded. Euggles refused to sign 
these papers, on the ground that they ought first to be 
approved by the several Assemblies, and should be forwarded 
to England as their acts. Ogden, one of the New Jersey 
delegates, withheld his signature on the same plea. The 
delegates from New York did not sign because they had no 
special authority for their attendance ; nor did those of Con- 
necticut or South Carolina, their commission restricting 
them to a report to their respective Assemblies. The peti- 
tion and memorials, signed by the other delegates, were 
transmitted to England for presentation. 

The several colonial Assemblies, at their earliest sessions, 
gave to the proceedings a cordial approval. The conduct of 
Euggles, in refusing his signature, was severely censured by 
the Massachusetts representatives. Ogden was burned in 
effigy by the people of New Jersey. 

The first day of November, appointed for the Stamp act to 
go into operation, came and went, but not a stamp was any- 
where to be seen. Two companies of rioters paraded that 
evening the streets of New York, demanding the delivery of 
the stamps, which Colden, on the resignation of the stamp 
distributor, and his refusal to receive them, had taken into 
the fort. Colden was hung in effigy. His carriage was 



•' Sam : " OR, THE HlSTOKY OF MYbTERY. 289 

seized, and made a bonfire of, under the muzzles of the guns ; 
after which the mob proceeded to a house in the outskirts, 
then occupied by Major James, of the Royal artillery, who 
had made himself obnoxious by his free comments on the con- 
duct of the colonists. James' furniture and property were 
destroyed, as Hutchinson's had been. General Gage, the 
commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, was at 
New^ York, but the regular garrison in the fort was very 
small. Alarmed for the safety of the city, and not willing 
to take any responsibility, as Sir Henry Moore, the recently 
appointed governor, was every day expected. Golden agreed 
by Gage's advice, the captain of a British ship of war in the 
harbor having refused to receive them, to give up the stamps 
to the mayor and corporation. They were accordingly depos- 
ited in the City Hall, under a receipt given by the Mayor. 

These proceedings had been under the control of the infe- 
rior class of people, of whom Isaac Sears, formerly a ship- 
master, and now inspector of potashes, was a conspicuous 
leader. The next day a meeting was Called of the wealthier 
inhabitants, and a committee was appointed, of which Sears 
was a member, with four colleagues, to correspond with the 
other colonies. This committee soon brought forward an 
agreement to import no more goods from Great Britain till 
the Stamp Act was repealed — the commencement of a system 
of retaliation on the mother country repeatedly resorted to 
in the course of the struggle. This non-importation agree- 
ment, to which a non-consumption agreement was presently 
added, beside being extensively signed in New York, was 
adopted also in Philadelphia and Boston. At the same time, 
and as part of the same plan, a combination was entered into 
for the support of American manufactures, the wearing of 
American cloths, and the increase of sheep, by ceasing to eat 
lamb or mutton. 

Business, suspended for a while, was presently resumed. 
Stamped papers were required in judicial proceedings, but by 
continuing the cases before them, or going on without notice 
of the deficiency, even the judges, after some hesitation, con- 
curred in nullifying the act. 

A change in the English ministry, which took place in 
July, and the news of which reached America in September, 
25 



290 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

encouraged the colonists in the stand they had taken. This 
change originated in domestic reasons, wholly unconnected 
with colonial polity ; it was regarded, however, as favorahle 
1 the general cause of freedom. The old Whig aristocracy, 
which had governed the kingdom since the accession of the 
house of Hanover, had split up, of late, into several bitter 
and hostile factions, chiefly founded on mere personal consid- 
erations. Pitt's repeated attacks on former ministries, and, 
at last, his forcing himself into power, had contributed not a 
little to this result. The accession of George III, had given 
rise to a new party, by which Pitt himself had been super- 
seded — a party which called themselves *' king's friends,'' 
composed partly of political adventurers from among the 
Whigs, such as Grenville, the late minister, but partly also 
of the representatives of the old Tory families, for half a 
century previous exclud'ed by the Whigs from office. These 
" king's friends" were regarded as hostile to popular rights, 
and wcYQ looked upon by the great body of the middle class 
with very jealous eyes. It was their distinguishing doctrine, 
that the authority of the king had been usurped and en- 
croached upon by the House of Commons. The Marquis of 
Kockingham, the new minister, leader of one of the frag- 
ments of the old Whig party, was liberally disposed ; but 
as yet, there hardly existed in England a popular party, in 
our American sense. The interests of trade and manufac- 
tures were not, indeed, without their representatives, chosen 
from some of the large towns, but a great part of the 
boroughs were "rotten" — the property, that is, of one or 
more individuals, wdio, in fact, named the representatives; 
while money, in the shape of bribes, decided the choice in 
many of the rest. The House of Commons represented a 
narrow aristocracy, the majority of the members being sub- 
stantially nominated by the great landholders. The House, 
thus chosen, debated with closed doors, only a few spectators 
being admitted, as a special favor. To publish an account 
of their proceedings was a breacli of privilege, and only 
brief and imperfect sketches, even of the principal debates, 
found their way into print. Faint signs were but just be- 
ginning to appear, of that social revolution which has created 
the modern popular party of Great Britain and Europe, 
giving complete publicity to legislative proceedings, and 



"Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 291 

organizing public opinion as a regular and powerful check 
upon authority. 

In the address from the throne, at the opening of the 
session, the new ministry brought the state of colonial affairs 
before Parliament. They produced the correspondence of the 
colonial governors, and other papers relating to the late dis- 
turbance. Numerous petitions from British merchants, for 
the repeal of the Stamp Act, were also presented to the two 
Houses. (1766.) 

Pitt, for some time past withdrawn by sickness from pub- 
lic affairs, was unconnected, at this moment, with either 
Grenville's or Rockingham's party. He now appeared in his 
place in the House of Commons, and delivered his opinion, 
" that the kingdom had no right to levy a tax on the col- 
onies." " The Commons in America, represented in their 
several assemblies, have invariably exercised the constitu- 
tional right of giving and granting their own money ; they 
would have been slaves if they had not ; at the same time, 
this kingdom has ever possessed the power of legislative and 
commercial control. The colonies acknowledge your author- 
ity in all things, with the sole exception that you shall not 
take their money out of their pockets without their consent." 

This decided avowal by Pitt, made a profound impression 
on the House. After a long pause, Grenville rose to vindi- 
cate the Stamp Act. The tumults in America bordered, he 
averred, on open rebellion ; but if the doctrines now promul- 
gated were upheld, they would soon lose that name, and be- 
come a revolution. Taxation was a branch of the sovereign 
power, constantly exercised by Parliament, over the unrepre- 
sented. Resorting, then, to a method of intimidation com- 
mon with politicians, ''the seditious spirit of the colonies," 
he said, " owes its birth to the faction in this House." This 
invidious assault was met by Pitt with characteristic intrepid- 
itv. " A charge is broui^ht ao;ainst o-entlemen sitting in 
this House, of giving birth to sedition in America. The 
freedom with which they have spoken their sentiments 
against this unhapp}'' act, is imputed to them as a crime. 
But the imputation shall not discourage me." " We are told 
America is obstinate — America is almost in open rebellion. 
Sir, I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of 
people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to 



292 ''Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make 
slaves of all the rest." " The Americans have been wronged ! 
They have been driven to madness by injustice ! Will you 
punish them for the madness you have occasioned ? No ! 
Let this country be the first to resume its prudence and tem- 
per ; I will pledge myself for the colonies, that on their 
part, animosity and resentment will cease." 

The new ministry were under no obligation to support the 
policy of their predecessors. Anxious to escape the difiiculty 
by the readiest means, they brought in a bill for repealing 
the Stamp Act. Franklin, summoned to the bar of the 
House as a witness, testified that the act could never be en- 
forced. His prompt and pointed answers gained him great 
credit for information, acuteness, and presence of mind. In 
favor of repeal, Burke, introduced into Parliament by 
Eockingham, to whom he had been private secretary, and 
for one of whose rotten boroughs he sat, gave his eloquent 
support. In spite of a very strenuous opposition on the part 
of the supporters of the late ministry, the bill of repeal was 
carried in the House of Commons, by a vote of two hundred 
and seventy-five to one hundred and sixty-seven. 

But the ministers by no means went the length of Pitt. 
They placed the repeal on tlie ground of expediency merely, 
and they softened the opposition by another bill, previously 
passed, which asserted the power and right of Parliament 
" to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever." Lord Cam- 
den, formerly Chief-justice Pratt, made a vigorous opposition 
to this bill, in the House of Lords. " My position is this — I 
repeat it — I will maintain it to the last hour — taxation and 
representation are inseparable. The position is founded in 
the law of nature. It is more : it is itself an eternal law 
of nature." Lord Mansfield, on the other hand, maintained 
the sovereign power of Parliament as including the right to 
tax ; an idea quite too flattering to the pride of authority to 
be easily relinquished. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

Dawn of the Revolutionary Period — Humorous " History of John Bull's 
Children " — Contrast between causes which led to the Revolution of 1688, 
in England, and those which led to the American Revolution ; from Judge 
Drayton's Charge, in 1776. 

We now come to a new era of struggle, in the history of 
'* Sam,'' by, and through which, his youthful prowess, thus 
continually exercised, as we have witnessed, becomes meet 
for successful collison with the uttermost force which is likely 
to array itself against his future. He has one more covert 
foe, with whom it is necessary that he should be finally " at 
quits," and who, (though not necessarily an internal one 
as are the Jesuits !) is yet, through his machinations, as 
dangerous, and even more important. 

As usual, wit-h the most serious affairs of the kind — it is 
a family quarrel, in which his elder first cousin, John Bull, 
assumes a domineering and pugilistic attitude, to the great 
tribulation of Sam — who, for the very reason that he was 
born of nothing but a cloud, was particularly sensitive about 
the matter of descent, primogeniture, reversions, titles, etc. 
Xow all this may seem to have been ver}^ inconsistent on his 
part, but a slight sketch of his family history about those 
times, will illustrate these traits of Sam sufficiently. 

"THE HISTORY OF JOHN BULL'S CHILDREX." 

We find the following in the ''Maryland Gazette^^ of 
August, 1776, into which it was copied from the ''London 
Chronicle.^' 

I, Sir Humphrey Poles worth, who formerly gave the world 
a true and faithful account of John Bull, and of his motlier. 

(293) 



294 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

and his sister, and wives, and his servants, now write the 
history of his children, and how they were got, and how they 
were educated, and what befell them. Courteous reader, if 
thou hast any curiosity to know these things, read the follow- 
ing chapters, and learn. 

Chapter i. — Of seven natural children, which John Bull 
had in his younger days by Doll Secretary, his mother's 
maid ; namely, three boys, John, junior, or master Jacky, 
Yorky, and Jerry: four girls, Penelope, Mary, Virgy, and 
Caroline. How the old lady would sutler no bastards in her 
family ; and how the poor infants were turned adrift on the 
fish-ponds as soon as born ; how they landed on the western 
shore, and were there nursed by a wild bear, all under the 
green wood tree. 

Chapter ii. — How John disowned them, and left them to 
get over the children's disorders the best way they could, 
without paying a farthing for nurses, or apothecary's bills ; 
and how, as soon as they had cut their eye-teeth, and were 
able to walk alone, John claimed them for his own. 

Chapter in. — How Master Jacky turned fisherman and 
ship-carpenter. Yorky and Jerry drove a great trade ; Miss 
Penny dealt in flour, called the Maid of the Mill, and never 
courtesied to anybody. How Mary and Virgy set up a 
snuff-shop ; and Caroline turned dry Salter, and sold indigo ; 
and how they all flourished exceedingly, and laid out every 
penny they earned, in their father's warehouse. 

Chapter iv. — Of two children more, that John had after- 
ward, in lawful wedlock (viz : a boy whom he called Georgy, 
after his great patron, and a girl, whom he called Peg, after 
his sister Margaret) ; how he crammed them with sugar- 
plums, and how they remain sickly, rickety brats to this day. 

Chapter v. — How young Master Baboon, old Louis' only 
son, fell in love with Miss Virgy, and how he came behind 
with intent to ravish her ; how she squealed, and alarmed 
her dad. 

Chapter vi. — How John called for his stick and his barge, 
and crossed the pond to save his daughter's virtue ; how 
young Louis gave him a confounded rap on his fingers and 
drove him back ; then at his daughter again. 

Chapter vil — How her brother Jack came to her assist- 
ance, and threw young Louis on his back ; how old Louis 



" Sam :'' or, the History of Mystery. 295 

Baboon flew to help his son, and carried Lord Strutt along 
with him ; how John Bull returned and mustered all his 
children at his back, and to it they went. 

Chapter viii. — How they had a long tussle ; how John's 
children saved their old dad from a broken head, and helped 
to seize young Louis and tie him ; how the old folks agreed 
to leave young Louis in custody, and drink friends them- 
selves ; and how John made his children pay a share of the 
reckoning, without giving them any of the drink. 

Chapt::r ix. — Haw John, in his cups, bragged of his exploits, 
and said he had done all himself, and his children nothing ; 
how he made choice of fair George, the gentle shepherd, for 
his house-steward, and because he could tell, without the book, 
that two and three make five, and had the multiplication 
table by heart. 

Chapter x. — The whole stewardship of fair George — how 
he neglected to protest Louis Baboon's note of hand on the 
day of payment, and released Lord Strutt from a mortgage on 
his manor of Eastland ; how he took an aversion to cider, and 
would allow none to be drunk in his family ; how he rum- 
maged every man's chest for pen, ink, and paper, and obliged 
those he caught writing, to stand atop of the table, with a 
wooden neckcloth under their chin, while he counted sixty 
times sixty ; and how this is called the gentle shepherd's 
benefit of the clergy, unto this day. 

Chapter xi. — How fair George took an antipathy to John's 
children, because he said they put nothing into the box at 
Cliristmas ; and when they came to pay their shop accounts, 
they brought in their money at the back door : how he advised 
John to brand them on the far buttock, as they do stray 
cattle, that he mio-ht know them as his own. 

Chapter xii. — How John's children rode restive, and swore 
they would not have the broad E. stamped on their b — k- 
s — des ; how John, in heating the irons, burnt his own fingers, 
most d — ly ; how all his neighbors laughed, and fair George 
could not find him a plaster. 

Chapter xiii. — How John, in a passion, kicked fair George 
down stairs, and rung up other servants : how they advised 
him to consult his wife ; and how Mrs. Bull advised him to 
let his children alone ; that, though they were born in sin, they 
were his own fiesli and blood, and needed no stamp to show 



296 " Sam : " or. the History of Mystery. 

it ; how John took her advice, and let the irons cool again ; 
and how some suspected if John's fingers had not smarted he 
would not have complied so soon. 

Chapter xiv. — A dialogue on education, between fair 
George and lame "Will. How Will proved it to be both cruel 
and impolitic to pinch children till they cried, and then pinch 
them for crying ; and how George answered and said nothing. 

Chapter xv. — How John, by means of liis new servants, 
became beloved of his children, and respected by his neigh- 
bors ; how he obliged Louis Baboon to beat down the walls of 
Ecclesdown castle, because it overlooked his pond, and har- 
bored seagulls, to gobble up his fish . How he made him also 
pay up his note of hand ; and how Lord Strutt . 

What Lord Strutt did, does not appear, but this veracious 
narrator of the olden time, has furnished us with a genealo- 
gical treatise, invaluable in itself, and highly illustrative of 
many striking peculiarities, which we find to be even at this 
day, the distinctive family traits of '* Sam,'' who has clearly 
inherited many of the good as well as bad qualities com- 
plained of, and portrayed above in the character of his an- 
cestor, John Bull. Though Sam is in this instance the 
rather graphic complainant, yet we have endeavored to show, 
that in many instances since, his own conduct would have 
been no discredit to the attributes of the venerable elder 
John, himself I 

But that " Sam " now began to have real causes of com- 
plaint, we shall perceive by the following "catalogue of op- 
pressions, and contrast of the causes which led to the revolution 
which deposed James H., and those which led to the Ameri- 
can Eevolution." This valuable document is from 

JUDGE Drayton's charge, 

At an adjournment of the Court of General Sessions of 
the Peace, Oyer and Terminer, Assize, and General 
Gaol Delivery, held at Charleston, for the District of Charles- 
ton, on Tuesday, the 23d day of April, 1776, before the 
Hon. William Henry Drayton, Esq., Chief-justice, and his 
Associates, justices of the colony of South Carolina. 

Even the famous revolution in England, in the year 
1 688, is much inferior. However, we need no better authority 



" Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 297 

than that illustrious precedent, and I will therefore com- 
pare the causes of, and the law upon the two events. 

On tlie 7th of February, 1688, the Lords and Commons 
of England, in convention, completed the following resolu- 
tions : 

"Kesolved, That King James IL, having endeavored to 
subvert the constitution of the kingdom, by breaking the 
origmal contract between king and people ; and, by the ad- 
vice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the 
fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of this 
kingdom ; has abdicated the government, and that the 
throne is thereby vacant.'^ 

That famous resolution deprived James of his crown, and 
became the foundation on which the throne of the present 
king of Great Britain is built ; it also supports the edifice 
of government which we have erected. 

In that resolve, there are but three facts stated to have 
been done by James. I will point them out, and examine 
whether those facts will apply to the present king of Great 
Britain, with regard to the operations of government, by 
him or his representative immediately, or by consequence, 
affecting this colony. 

The first fact is, the having endeavored to subvert the 
constitution of the kino;dom, bv weakenino; the orio^inal 
contract. 

The violation of the fundamental laws is the second fact ; 
and in support of these two charges, the Lords spiritual and 
temporal, and Commons, assembled at Westminister, on the 
12th day of February, 1688, declared James was guilty: 

"By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with, 
and suspending of laws, and the execution of laws, without 
consent of Parliament; 

" By committing and prosecuting divers worthy prelates, 
for humbly petitioning to be excused from concurring to the 
said assumed power ; 

*' By issuing and causing to be executed a commission, 
under the great seal, for erecting a court, called the Court 
of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes ; 

" By levying money for, and to the use of the crown, by 
pretense of prerogative, for other time, and in other man- 
ner, than the same was granted by Parliament : 



298 " Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

" By raising and keeping a standing army within this 
kingdom in time of peace, without consent of Parliament ; 
and quartering soldiers contrary to law ; 

" By causing several good subjects, being Protestants, to 
be disarmed, at the same time when papists were both armed 
and employed, contrary to law ; 

"By violating the freedom of election of members to 
serve in Parliament ; 

" By prosecuting in the Court of King's Bench, for mat- 
ters and causes cognizable only in Parliament ; and by divers 
other arbitrary and illegal courses/' 

This declaration, thus contains two points of criminal- 
ity — breach of the original contract, and violation of funda- 
mental law. 

The catalogue of our oppressions, continental and local, is 
enormous. Of such oppressions, I will mention only some 
of the most weighty : 

Under color of law, the King and Parliament of Great 
Britain, have made the most arbitrary attempts to enslave 
America : 

Bv claiming a rio;ht TO bind the colonies in all cases 

WHATSOEVER ; 

By laying duties, at their mere will and pleasure, upon all 
the colonies ; 

By suspending the Legislature of New York ; 

By rendering the American charters of no validity, havmg 
annulled the most material parts of the charter of Massa- 
chusetts Bay ; 

By divesting multitudes of the colonists of their property 
without legal accusation or trial ; 

By depriving whole colonies of the bounty of Providence 
on their own proper coasts, in order to coerce them by 
famine ; 

By restricting the trade and commerce of America ; 

By sending to, and continuing in America, in time of 
peace, an armed force, without and against the consent of the 
people ; 

By granting impunity to a soldiery instigated to murder 
the Americans ; 

By declaring, that the people of Massachusetts Bay are 
liable for offences, or pretended offences, done in that colony, 



" Sam: ' or, the History of Mystery. 299 

to be sent to, and tried for the same in England; or in 
any colony ivhere they can not have the benefit of a jury of the 
vicinage. 

Bj establishing, in Quebec, the Eoman Catholic religion, 
and an arbitrary government ; instead of the Protestant 
relio'ion and a free o'overnment. 

And thus America saw it demonstrated, that no faith ought 
to be put in a royal proclamation ; for I must observe to you 
that, in the year 1763, by such a proclamation, people were 
invited to settle in Canada, and were assured of a legislative 
representation, the benefit of the common law of England, 
and a free government. It is a misfortune to the public, 
that this is not the only instance of the inefficiency of a royal 
proclamation. However, having given yon one instance of a 
failure of royal faith in the northern extremity of this 
abused continent, let it suffice, that I direct your attention to 
southern extremity, respecting which, the same particulars, 
were, in the same manner promised, but the deceived inhab- 
itants of St. Augustine are left by their grand jnry, in vain 
to complain and lament to the world, and yet scarcely per- 
mitted to exercise even that privilege distinguishing the 
miserable distinction that royal faith is not kept with them. 

Let us contrast the causes which led to the Kevolution 
which deposed James II, with those which led to the American 
Eevolution : 

In the first place then, it is laid down in the best law 
authorities, that protection and subjection are reciprocal ; and 
that these reciprocal duties form the original contract between 
king and people. It therefore follows, that the original contract 
was broken by James' conduct, as above stated, which amount- 
ed to a not aftording due protection to his people. And it is 
clear that he violated the fundamental laws, by the suspend- 
ing of laws, and the execution of laws ; by levying money ; 
bv violatino' the freedom of election of members to serve in 
parliament ; by keeping a standing army in time of peace ; 
and by quartering soldiers contrary to law, and without con- 
sent of parliament — which is as much as to say. that he did 
those things without consent of the legislative Assembly chosen 
by the personal election of that people, over whom such 
doings were exercised. 



300 '' Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

These points, reasonings and conclusions, being settled in, 
deduced from, and established upon parliamentary proceedings 
and the best law authorities, must ever remain unshaken. 
I am now to undertake the disagreeable task of examining 
whether they will apply to the violences which have lighted 
up, and now feed the flames of civil war in America. 

James 11. suspended the operations of laws — George HI. 
caused the charter of the Massachusetts-Bay to be, in effect, 
annihilated ; he suspended the operation of the law which 
formed a legislature in New York, vesting it with adequate 
powers ; and thereby he caused the very ability of making 
laws in that colony to be suspended. 

King James levied money without the consent of the 
representatives of the people, called upon to pay it — King 
George has levied money upon America, not only without, 
but expressly against the consent of the representatives of 
the people in America. 

King James violated the freedom of election of members 
to serve in parliament — King George, by his representative, 
Lord William Campbell, acting for him and on his be- 
half, broke through a fundamental law of this country, for 
the certain holding of general assemblies ; and, thereby, as 
far as in him lay, not only violated, but annihilated the very 
ability of holding a general assembly. 

King James, in time of peace, kept a standing army in 
England, without consent of the representatives of the 
people, among whom that army was kept — King George 
hath, in time of peace, invaded this continent with a large 
standing army, without the consent, and he hath kept it 
within this continent expressly against the consent of the 
representatives of the people, among whom that army is posted. 

All which doings by King George HI., respecting 
America, are as much contrary to our interests and welfare, 
as much against law, and tend as much, at least, to subvert 
and extirpate the liberties of this colony, and of America, 
as the similar proceedings, by James II., operated respect- 
ing the people of England. For the same principle of 
law. touching the premises, equally applies to the people 
of England in the one case, and to the people of America 
in the other. And this is the great principle. Certain acts 



•' Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 301 

done, over, and affecting a people, against and ivithout THEIR 
CONSENT, expressed oy themselves, or hy representatives of 
their OWN election. Upon this only principle was grounded 
the complaints of the people of England — upon the same is 
grounded the complaints of the people of America. And 
hence it clearly follows, that if James IL violated the funda- 
mental laws of England, George III. hath also violated the 
fundamental laws of America. 

Again : — King James broke the original contract by not 
affording due protection to his subjects, although he was not 
charged with having seized their towns, or with having held 
them against the people — or, with having laid them in ruins, 
by his arms — or, with having seized their vessels — or, with 
having pursued the people with fire and sword — or, with 
having declared them rebels for resisting his arms, levelled 
to destroy their lives, liberties, and properties. But George 
III. hath done all these things against America; and, it is, 
therefore, undeniable that he hath not afforded due pro- 
tection to the people. Wherefore, if James II. broke the 
original contract, it is undeniable that -George III. has also 
broken the original contract between king and people ; and 
that he made use of the most violent measures by which it 
could be done — violences of which James loas guiltless — 
measures carrying conflagrations, massacre and open war 
amidst a people whose subjection to the king of Great Britain 
the law holds to be due only as a return for protection. And 
so tenacious and clear is the law upon this very principle, that 
it is laid down, subjection is not due even to a king, de jure, 
or of right, unless he be also king de facto, or in possession 
of the executive powers dispensing protection. 

Again, the third fact charged against James is, that he 
withdrew himself out of the kingdom — and we know that 
the people of this country have declared, that Lord William 
Campbell, the king of Great Britain's representative, " bav- 
in o; used his utmost efforts to destrov the lives, liberties, and 
property of the good people here, whom by the duty of 
his station he was bound to protect, withdrew himself out 
of the colony." Hence it will appear, that George HI. 
hath withdrawn himself out of this colony, provided it be 
established that exactly the same natural consequence resulted 
from the withdrawal in each case respectively — King James 



302 " Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

personally out of England, and King George out of Carolina, 
by the agency of his substitute and representative, Lord 
William Campbell. 

By King James' withdrawing, the executive magistrate 
was gone ; thereby, in the eye of the law, the executive magis- 
trate was dead, and of consequence, royal government actu- 
ally ceased in England: — so by King George's representative 
withdrawing, the executive magistrate was gone ; the death, 
in law, became apparent, and of consequence royal govern- 
ment actually ceased in this colony. Lord William withdrew 
as the king's representative, carrying off the great seal and 
royal instructions to governors ; and acting for, and on the 
part of his principal, by every construction of law, that con- 
duct became the conduct of his principal ; and thus, James 
II. withdrew out of England, and George III. withdrew 
out of South Carolina ; and by such a conduct, respectively, 
the people in each country were exactly in the same degree 
injured. 

The three facts against King James being thus stated, and 
compared with similar proceedings by King George, we are 
now to ascertain the result of the injuries done by the first, 
and the law upon that point — which being ascertained, must 
naturally constitute the judgement in law, upon the result 
of the similar injuries done by the last; and I am happy 
that I can give you the best authority upon this important 
point. 

Treating upon this great precedent in constitutional law, 
tlie learned Judge Blackstone declares, that the result of the 
facts " amounted to an abdication of the government, which 
abdication did not affect only the person of the king himself, 
but also, all his heirs; and rendered the throne absolutely 
and completely vacant." Thus it clearly appears that the 
government was not abdicated, and the throne vacated by 
the resolution of the Lords and Commons, but that the resolu- 
tion was only declaratory of the law of Nature and reason, 
upon the result of the injuries proceeding from the three 
combined facts of mal-administration. And thus, as I have 
on the foot of the best authorities made it evident, that George 
HI., king of Great Britain, has endeavored to subvert the 
constitution of this country, by breaking the original contract 
between king and country ; by the advice of wicked persons, 



"Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 303 

has violated the fundamental laws, and has withdrawn him- 
self, by withdrawing the constitutional benefits of the kingly 
office, and his protection out of this country ; from such a 
result of injuries, from such a conjunction of circumstances, 
the law of the land authorizes me to declare, and it is my 
duty boldly to declare the law, that George HI., king of 
Great Britain, has abdicated the government, and that the 
throne is thereby vacant — that is, he has no authority over us, 
and we oive no obedience to him. The British ministers already 
have presented a charge of mine to the notice of the Lords 
and Commons, in Parliament ; and 1 am nothing loth that 
they take equal resentment against this charge. For, sup- 
ported by the fundamental laws of the constitution, and 
engaged as I am in the cause of virtue, I fear no consequences 
from their machinations. 

Thus having stated the principal causes of our last revo- 
lution, it is clear as the sun in meridian, that George HI. 
injured the Americans, at least as grievously as James II. 
injured the people of England; but that James did not 
oppress these in so criminal a manner as George has oppressed 
the Americans. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Townshend's scheme of Colonial Taxation — Repeal of the new taxes, except 
that on Tea — Local Afifairs — Trade of the Colonies — Attempt to collect 
the Tax on Tea — Reminiscences of the Position of the Tea Ships at 
Boston — Destruction of the Tea in Boston Harbor. 

In spite of the Parliamentary claim, of power to bind the 
colonies in all cases whatsoever, the repeal of the Stamp Act 
produced throughout America a great hurst of loyalty and 
gratitude. Virginia voted a statue to the king. New York 
voted statues to the king and to Pitt, both of which were 
presently erected. Maryland voted a statue to Pitt, and a 
portrait of Lord Camden. Faneuil Hall was adorned with 
full-length pictures of Barre and Conway. Pitt became more 
than ever a popular idol. Eesolutions of thanks to him and 
others were agreed to by most of the colonial Assemblies. 

A resolution of the House of Commons had demanded 
indemnity from the colonies for such crown officers as had 
suffered losses in the late Stamp Act riots. New York 
promptly complied. After much urging by the governor, 
Massachusetts passed a similar act ; but a free pardon to the 
rioters, inserted in it, betrayed the state of public feeling, 
and gave great offense in England. 

As the first burst of exultation died away, new discontents 
began to spring up. The Stamp Act was repealed, but the 
'' Sugar Act" remained in force, and, though modified by a 
still further reduction of the duties on molasses, to one penny 
per gallon, it continued to give great dissatisfaction, especially 
in the northern colonies. Another modification of that act 
prohibited all direct trade with France. But iron and lumber, 
lately placed in the list of " enumerated articles," were allowed 
to be exported to European ports south of Cape Fiuisterre. 
r304) 



'' Sam :'' or, the History of Mystery. 305 

The opponents of the Stamp Act, or some of them, 
especially Pitt, had taken a distinction between a direct tax 
levied on the colonies, and commercial imposts which might 
be supposed to fall under the admitted parliamentary right 
of reo'ulatino- trade. Of this distinction Townshend took 
advantage in framing his new project — but in one respect his 
bill violated the established policy of the mother country. 
The royal negative had been repeatedly placed on colonial 
acts levying imposts on British goods. But this bill, along 
with tea, included paints, paper, glass, and lead — articles of 
British produce — as objects of custom-house taxation in the 
colonies. The exportation of tea to America was encouraged 
by another act, allowing for five years a drawback of the 
whole duty payable on the importation. 

The impossibility of enforcing the Stamp Act, not any 
sense of right or justice, had produced its repeal. This new 
act of Townshend's, the immediate cause of all the subse- 
quent troubles, was supposed to be of easier execution, and 
passed with very little opposition. By another act, reorgan- 
izing the colonial custom-house system, a Board of Revenue 
Commissioners for America was established, to have its seat 
at Boston. (June, 1767.) 

The Massachusetts House of Eepresentatives consisted at 
this time of upward of a hundred members, by far the most 
numerous Assembly in America. Its debates had begun to 
attract attention, and a gallery had lately been erected for 
tlie accommodation of spectators. The council, purged by 
dropping Hutchinson and several other officials, was now 
chiefly influenced by James Bowdoin. His grandfather, a 
French Huguenot, had mig^rated to New England shortly 
after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. His father, from 
very small beginnings, had acquired the largest fortune in 
Boston, all of which, being an only child, Bowdoin had inher- 
ited at the age of twenty-one. In the prime of life, of ele- 
vated character and a studious turn of mind, for several years 
past a member of the council, he acted in close concert with 
xldams, to whose impetuous ardor and restless activity his 
less excitable but not less firm temper served as a useful 
counterpoise. (1768.) 

Meanwhile the merchants had been greatly irritated by 
new strictness in the collection of duties, and bv suits even 
26 



806 *' Sam: '* or, the History of Mystery. 

for past breaches of the revenue laws. Shortly after the 
meeting of the new General Court, the seizure of the sloop 
Liberty, belonging to Hancock, on the charge of having 
smuggled on shore a cargo of wine from Madeira, occasioned 
a great riot. The newly-appointed revenue commissioners 
fled for their lives, first on board a ship-of-war in the harbor, 
and then to the barracks on Castle Island, where a company 
of British artillery was stationed. A town meeting, held in 
Faneuil Hall, petitioned the governor to remove the ship-of- 
war from the harbor. The council passed resolutions strongly 
condemning the rioters, but would not advise that the com- 
missioners might safely return to the town, nor could the 
governor induce them to take any decided step of any sort. 
The House took no notice at all of the matter. An attempt 
to prosecute those engaged in the riot failed for want of wit- 
nesses, and even the proceedings against the vessel had to 
be given up for the same cause. 

Before news had reached England, of the late riot in Boston, 
two regiments from Halifax had been ordered thither. When 
news of that riot arrived, two additional regiments were 
ordered from Ireland. The arrival of an officer, sent by 
Gage from New York, to provide quarters for these troops, 
occasioned a town meeting in Boston, by which the governor 
was requested to summon a new General Court, which he 
peremptorily refused to do. The meeting then recommended 
a convention of delegates from all the towns in the province, 
to assemble at Boston in ten days; "in consequence of pre- 
vailing apprehensions of a war with France " — such was the 
pretense — they advised all persons not already provided with 
fire-arms to procure them at once ; they also appointed a day 
of fasting and prayer, to be observed by all the Congrega- 
tional societies. Delegates from more than a hundred towns 
met accordingly at the day appointed, chose Cushing, speaker 
of the late House, as their chairman, and petitioned Bernard 
to summon a General Court. The governor not only refused 
to receive their petition, but denounced the meeting as trea- 
sonable. In view of this charge, the proceedings were exceed- 
ingly cautious and moderate. All pretensions to political 
authority were expressly disclaimed. In tlie course of a four 
days' session, a petition to the king was agreed to, and a 
letter to the agent, De Berdt. of which the chief burden was 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 307 

to defend the province against the charge of a rebellious 
spirit. Such was the first of those popular conventions, des- 
tined within a few years to assume the whole political author- 
ity of the colonies. 

The day after the adjournment, the troops from Halifax 
arrived. There was room in the barracks at the castle, but 
Gage, alarmed at the accounts from Massachusetts, had sent 
orders from New York to have the two regiments quartered 
in the town. The council were called upon to find quarters, 
but by the very terms of the Quartering Act, as they alleged, 
till the barracks were full there was no necessity to provide 
quarters elsewhere. Bernard insisted that the barracks had 
been reserved for the two regiments expected from Ireland, 
and must, therefore, be considered as already full. The 
council replied, that, even allowing that to be the case, by 
the terms of the act, the provision of quarters belonged not 
to them, but to the local magistrates. There was a large 
building in Boston belonging to the province, known as the 
*' Manufactory House,'' and occupied by a number of poor 
families. Bernard pressed the council to advise that this 
building be cleared, and prepared for the reception of the 
troops ; but they utterly refused. The governor then under- 
took to do it on his own authority. The troops had already 
landed, under cover of the ships of war, to the number of a 
thousand men. Some of them appeared, to demand an 
entrance into the Manufactory House ; but the tenants were 
encouraged to keep possession ; nor did the governor venture 
to use force. One of the regiments encamped on the Com- 
mon ; for a part of the other regiment, which had no tents, 
the temporary use of Faneuil Hall was reluctantly yielded ; 
to the rest of it, the Town House, used also as a State House, 
all except the council cliamber, was thrown open by the 
governor's order. It was Sunday. The Town House was 
directly opposite the meeting-house of the First Church. Can- 
non were planted in front of it ; sentinels were stationed in 
the streets ; the inhabitants were challenged as they passed. 
The devout were greatly aggravated and annoyed by the 
beating of drums, and the marching of the troops. 

Presently Gage came to Boston to urge the provision of 
quarters. The council directed his attention to the terms 
of the act. and referred him to the selectmen. As the act 



308 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

spoke only of justices of the peace, the selectmen declined to 
take any steps in the matter. Bernard then constituted what 
he called a Board of Justices, and required them to tind 
quarters ; but they did not choose to exercise a doubtful and 
unpopular authority. Gage was finally obliged to quarter 
the troops in houses which he hired for that purpose, and to 
procure out of his own military chest the firing, bedding, and 
other articles mentioned in the Quartering Act, the council 
having declined to order any expenditure for those purposes, 
on the ground that the appropriation of money belonged 
exclusively to the General Court. 

The seventeen months during which the British troops 
had been stationed in Boston, even the agreement of the 
commanding officer to use only a single drum and fife on 
Sundays, had by no means reconciled the townspeople to 
their presence. A weekly paper, the "Journal of the 
Times," was filled with all sorts of stories, some true, but 
the greater part false or exaggerated, on purpose to keep 
up prejudice against the soldiers. A mob of men and boys, 
encouraged by the sympathy of the mass of the inhabitants, 
made it a constant practice to insult and provoke them. The 
result to be expected soon followed. After numerous fights 
with straggling soldiers, a serious collision at length took 
place. A picket guard of eight men, provoked beyond en- 
durance by words and blows, fired into a crowd, killed three 
persons, and dangerously wounded five others. The bells 
were rung ; a cry spread through the town — " the soldiers 
are rising." It was late at night ; but the population poured 
into the streets ; nor was it without difficulty that a general 
combat was prevented. The next morning, at an early hour, 
Faneuil Hall was filled with an excited and indignant assem- 
bly. At a town meeting, legally warned, held that afternoon 
in the old South Meeting-house, the largest building in the 
town, it was voted "that nothing could be expected to restore 
peace, and prevent blood and carnage, but the immediate 
removal of the troops." A committee was appointed, with 
Samuel Adams as chairman, to carry this vote to the lieu- 
tenant governor and council. Adams entered the council 
chamber at the head of his committee, and delivered his 
message. Colonel Dalrymple, the commander of the troops, 
was present, as was the commander of the ships of war in 



" Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 309 

the harbor. Hutchinson disclaimed any authority over the 
sohliers. Adams answered by a reference to that clause in 
the charter which declared tlie governor, or, in his absence, 
the lieutenant governor, commander-in-chief of all the mili- 
tary and naval forces in the province. After a consultation 
with Dalrymple, Hutchinson replied that the colonel was 
willing to remove one of the regiments to the castle, if that 
would satisfy the people. ''Sir," said Adams, "if the lieu- 
tenant governor, or Colonel Dalrymple, or both together, 
have authority to remove one regiment, they have authority 
to remove two ; and nothing short of the departure of both 
regiments will satisfy the public mind, or preserve the peace 
of the province." The town meeting, after the return of 
their committee, voted the lieutenant governor's offer unsat- 
isfactory. Hutchinson and Dalrymple seem to have been 
mutually anxious to shift upon each other the responsibility 
of yielding to the popular demand. Finally, upon the unan- 
imous advice of the council, it was agreed that all the troops 
should be removed, the colonel pledging his honor that mean 
while not a sino-le soldier should be seen in the streets after 
dark. The funeral of the slain, attended by a vast concourse 
of people, was celebrated with all possible pomp. The story 
of the " Boston Massacre," for so it was called, exaggerated 
into a ferocious and unprovoked assault by brutal soldiers on 
a defenseless people, produced every where intense excite- 
ment. The officer and soldiers of the picket guard were 
indicted and tried for murder. They were defended, how- 
ever, by John Adams and Josiah Quincy, two young lawyers, 
among the most zealous of the popular leaders ; and so clear 
a case was made out in their behalf, that they were all ac- 
quitted except two, who were found guilty of manslaughter, 
and slightly punished. 

The British cabinet, after great struggles, had been quite 
sifted of its Whig; members. The ''kino-'s friends" section 
of it had expelled all their opponents, and Francis North, 
eldest son of the Earl of Guilford, by courtesy Lord North, 
as the leader of that section, had risen to the head of the 
ministry. As it happened, on the very day of the Boston 
massacre Lord North brought forward the promised motion 
to repeal the whole of Townshend's act except the duty on 
tea. That act, he observed, had been the occasion of most 



810 '* Sam: " ok, the History of Mystery. 

dangerous, Adolent, and illegal combinations in America 
against the importation and use of British manufactures. 
The British merchants had petitioned against it. As to arti- 
cles of British produce, ever to have taxed them was indeed 
an absurd violation of established policy. The tax on tea 
stood on a different ground. When that tax was imposed, a 
drawback had been allowed on the exportation of tea to 
America ; and as the colonists were thus relieved of a duty 
amounting, on an average, to a shilling a pound, they had 
no riglit to complain of a tax of threepence, since they 
gained, in fact, ninepence the pound by the change. He 
could have wished to repeal the whole act, could that have 
been done without giving up the right of taxing the colo- 
nies — a right he would contend for to the last hour of his 
life. The proposed repeal, without any i-elaxation of author- 
ity, was intended as a persuasive to bring the colonists back 
to their duty. The existing combinations in the colonies, 
against the use of British manufactures, he thought, would 
soon come to an end. 

Pownall moved to include tea in the repeal, supporting 
this amendment rather on grounds of expediency and com- 
mercial policy than as a matter of colonial right. He was 
seconded by Conway and Barre. Grenville declared that 
when he laid the stamp tax, he had the best information 
that it would be submitted to. In laying that tax he had 
acted systematically, to make every portion of the king's 
dominions bear a part of the public burdens. When that 
act raised troubles in America, the ministers who succeeded 
him acted systematically too. Theirs, perhaps, was the next 
best system to his own. They took the Americans by the 
hand, and restored things to the state they were in before 
the passing of the Stamp Act. In this statement, however, 
Grenville overlooked the Sugar Act, which the Kockingham 
ministry had left in full force ; but that he probably regarded 
as a mere modification of the old Molasses Act, though essen- 
tially different from it in principle, involving the claim of 
parliamentary taxation hardly less than the Stamp Act itself. 
"Since that time," said Grenville, "no minister had acted 
with common sense. The next ministry laid a tax diametri- 
cally repugnant to commercial principles, bringing in no 
money, and throwing North America into ten times STeater 



'* Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 311 

flame than before." He was in favor of easing the Ameri- 
cans; but the ministers had no plan. The partial repeal 
which they proposed would do no good; and the proposed 
amendment was so very little better, that he did not think 
it worth while to force it upon a reluctant ministry. He, 
therefore, should not vote upon the question. The amend- 
ment was defeated, two hundred and four to one hundred 
and forty-two ; and, on a subsequent day, Lord North's bill 
of repeal became law. The obnoxious Quartering Act, lim- 
ited by its terms to three years, was suffered silently to 
expire. But the Sugar Act, and especially the tax on tea, 
as they involved the whole principle of parliamentary taxa- 
tion, were quite sufficient to keep up the discontent of the 
colonies. 

Lord North's act, in one respect, accomplished its object, 
in furnishing an excuse for abandoning the non-importation 
and non-consumption agreements, which soon became limited 
to the article of tea. Those agreements, though only par- 
tially observed, and that not without great jealousies and 
heart-burnings, were not, however, without permanent con- 
sequences. The discontinuance of that pomp of mourning 
and funeral expenses, for excess in which the colonists had 
been hitherto distinguished, takes its date from this occasion. 
The infant manufactures of America received, too, from these 
agreements, a strong impulse. Home-made became all the 
fashion. The graduating class at Cambridge took their 
degrees this year in homespun suits. 

The trade between Great Britain and the colonies is stated 
for the year 1770, as follows, and the average of the last 
ten years, allowing for a moderate increase, had not been 
materially different : 

Exports to Great Britain. 

New England £148,011 $657,168 

New York 69,882 310,276 

Pennsylvania 28,109 12-l:,803 

Virginia and Maryland 435,094 1,931,801 

Carolinas 278,097 1,234,750 

Georgia 55,532 234,352 



£1,014,725 $4,493,150 



312 "Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 



Imp(yrts from Great Britain. 

New England £394,451 $1,751,362 

New York 475,991 2,113,400 

Pennsylvania 134,881 599,093 

Virginia and Maryland 717,782 3,186,952 

Carolinas 146,272 649,446 

Georgia 56,193 249,496 

£1,925,570 $8,549,749 

The surplus of imports was paid for by tlie profits of tlie 
trade with Spain, Portugal, and the West Indies. 

The taxation dispute, after a ten years' growth, was now 
fast coming to a head. The ministers saw with no little 
vexation, that the tax on tea, retained for the express pur- 
pose of vindicating the authority of Parliament, was sub- 
stantially nullified, partly by smuggling, and partly by the 
non-importation and non-consumption agreements, observed 
as yet with considerable fidelity, especially in the middle and 
southern colonies. Perhaps it would have been the more 
politic course, to have given time for these combinations to -. 
die away, leaving the gradual introduction of the use of 
duty-paid tea to the vigilance of the customhouse officers, to 
appetite, and commercial cupidity and rivalry. Instead of 
adopting that temporizing policy, the impatient ministers 
resolved to force at once upon the reluctant colonies a large 
quantity of the obnoxious article ; well satisfied that, if 
landed and offered for sale, it would easily find its way into 
consumption. (1773.) 

By an act of the preceding session, the allowance of draw- 
back on teas exported, had been reduced to three-fifths of 
the duty. So far as America was concerned, a drawback of 
the whole duty was now revived. The existing restraints 
upon the East India Company, to export teas on their own 
account, were also repealed, and arrangements were present- 
ly entered into with that Company, for the consignment of 
several cargoes of teas to the principal American ports. 

No sooner did this project become known in America, than 
steps were taken to counterwork it. A public meeting of 
the people of Philadelphia protested, in eight resolutions, 
against taxation by Parliament ; and denounced as an 



"Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 313 

enemy to his country," " whosoever shall aid or abet m unload- 
ing, receiving, or vending the tea." In accordance with one 
of the resolutions, a committee was appointed to wait on 
the reputed consignees in that city, " to request them, from 
a regard to their own characters, and the public peace and 
good order of the city and province, immediately to resign 
their apppointments." The Messrs. Wharton gave a satis- 
factory answer, which was received with shouts of applause. 
Groans and hisses greeted the refusal of another firm to 
commit themselves till the tea arrived. 

The names of three well-known firms in Boston, presently 
began to be noised about as the intended consignees of the 
East India Company's tea. An anonymous notice was sent 
to these reputed consignees to be present at noon on a cer- 
tain day, under Liberty Tree, to resign their appointments, 
for which day and hour an anonymous hand-bill called a pub- 
lic meeting to hear their resignations. Several hundred 
persons assembled accordingly ; the consignees not appearing, 
a committee was sent to wait upon them ; but this committee 
they treated with contempt. 

Two days after, by a call of the selectmen, a legal town 
meeting was held, at which Hancock presided. After a pre- 
amble of their own, this meeting adopted the eight Phila- 
delphia resolutions, with a supplement, acknowledging some 
remissness hitherto, in the matter of the agreement not to 
import or consume tea, but insisting for the future upon 
strict observance. A committee, appointed in the terms of 
one of the resolutions, waited upon the consignees to request 
them to resign. After some little delay and evasion, they 
replied that, being as yet without any definite advices from 
England, they could give no decisive answer — a reply, voted 
by the meeting, " unsatisfactory " and " daringly affrontive." 

News presently arriving that the tea ships had sailed, 
and might be daily expected, another town meeting was 
summoned for the next day, to consult '' what further appli- 
cation shall be made to the consignees, or otherwise to act 
as the town shall think fit at the present dangerous crisis." 
In the evening, the house of Clarke, one of the consignees, 
was surrounded by a crowd, making many offensive noises, 
and a pistol having been fired at them, they retorted by 
smashing in tho windows. 



814 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

The town meeting, the next day, sent a committee to the 
the consignees, to inquire definitely, whether or not they in- 
tended to resign. Upon receipt of an answer in the nega- 
tive, the meeting dissolved without a word. This evidence 
of a determination to act instead of resolving, struck terror 
into the consignees. They presented a petition the next day, 
to the governor and council, asking to resign themselves 
and the property committed to their care, into the hands 
"of his excellency and their honors," and praying them to 
take measures for landino; and securino; the teas. The 
council, led hy Bowdoin, were very little inclined to interfere. 
They deprecated the late riot at Clarke's house, at least in 
words, and advised that the rioters he prosecuted ; but they 
asked further time to consider the petition. Several adjourn- 
ments accordingly took place, and before any decision was 
reached, one of the tea ships arrived. The council having 
met next day, presented a paper to the governor, declining 
to become parties to an unconstitutional attempt to levy 
taxes, against w^hich the General Court had so repeatedly 
protested, or to make themselves chargeable for the tea, by 
interfering to receive it. Meetings in all the neighboring 
towns had resolved to sustain Boston ; and while the council 
was thus declining to intermeddle witli the matter, a mass 
meeting, or " body," as they called themselves, of the people 
of Boston and the neighboring towns, assembled in Faneuil 
Hall, sent for the owner of the tea ship, ordered her to be 
moored at a certain wharf, and appointed a watch of twenty- 
five volunteers to watch her. It was resolved to send her 
back with her cargo, and the master and the owner were 
charged not to attempt, at their peril, to unlade her. The 
consignees, among whom were two of the governor's sons, 
frightened at these demonstrations, took refuge at the castle, 
wdiere was a regiment of British regulars. The " body " 
having met again the next day, the governor sent the sheriff 
of the county with a proclamation, declaring the meeting ille- 
gal, and ordering the people to disperse. They heard the 
message, hissed it, and voted unanimously not to regard it. 
The governor was powerless. He had ordered the Cadets, 
his guard of honor, to be in readiness ; but what could he 
expect of a company commanded by Hancock ? The troops 
at the castle, and the ships of war in the harbor, had no 



"Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 315 

warrant to interfere in a purely municipal matter ; nor was 
there any ground for the governor to call upon them, till 
something in the nature of riot, if not rebellion, had actually 
occurred. The consignees offered, if the tea might be landed, 
to keep it in store till orders came from England ; but this 
was rejected, and the master and the owner of the vessel, 
were both constrained to promise to carry it back. The 
owners of two other vessels on the way, were required to 
make a similar promise. Tea was denounced as a "perni- 
cious weed," and all persons who might henceforward be 
concerned in its importation, were declared enemies of their 
country. After a resolution to carry the matter through, at 
the risk of their lives and property, the "body" dissolved, 
leaving matters in the hands of a committee. 

The owmer of the vessel was very little disposed to carry 
out the agreement extorted from him. The governor was 
resolved that no clearance should be granted till the cargo 
was landed. At the end of thirty days from her arrival, the 
vessel would be liable to seizure, for non-payment of duties. 
Two other tea ships presently arrived, and were placed in 
custody like the other. Provoked and alarmed at the non- 
departure of the first vessel, the "body" re-assembled. The 
owner was sent for, and a committee was appointed to go 
with him to demand a clearance, which the collector, after 
taking time to consider, refused to give till the cargo was 
landed. The owner was then sent anew to the governor, at 
his country-house at Milton, to request a permit, without 
which the vessel could not pass the fort and the ships-of-war 
in the harbor. He returned late in the afternoon, and an- 
nounced the governor's refusal ; he had no power, he said, 
to grant the permit till a clearance was first exhibited. 
This had been anticipated and prepared for. A band of 
some fifty men, " very dark-complexioned persons, dressed 
like Mohawks, of very grotesque appearance," so says the 
Massachusetts Gazette of that day, " approached the hall 
with an imitation of the war-whoop, and, while Josiah Quin- 
cy harangued the people on the necessity of adhering to 
their resolutions, whatever might be the consequences, the 
pretended Mohawks proceeded to the wharf, and boarded the 
tea vessels. It was now six oclock ; the evening dusk had 
set in ; the ' body ' was dissolved, and the people, hastening 



316 ''Sam:^^ or, the History of Mystery. 

to the wharf, looked on in silent anxiety, while in the course 
of two hours, three hundred and forty-two chests of tea 
were drawn up from the holds of the vessels and emptied 
into the water." 

There have heen some doubts concerning the destruc- 
tion of the tea, on the 16th of December, 1773. The number 
of the ships, and the place where they were situated, is not 
quite certain. One gentleman, now living, over seventy years 
of age, thinks they were at Hubbard's Wharf, as it was then 
called, about half way between Griffin's (now Liverpool) and 
Foster's Wharf, and that the number of ships were four or 
five. Another gentleman, who is seventy-five years of age, 
and who was one of the guard detached from the new grena- 
dier company, says that he spent the night, but one, before 
the destruction of the tea, in company with General Knox, 
then a private in that company, on board one of the tea ships ; 
that this ship lay on the south side of Kussell's Wharf ; and 
and that there were two more on the north side of the same 
wharf, and he thinks one or two at Griffin's Wharf. A gen- 
tleman now living, who came from England in one of the tea 
ships, thinks there were but two, but is uncertain where they 
lay. A song, written soon after the time, tells of " Three 
ill-fated ships at Griffin's wharf." The whole evidence seems 
to result in this : there were three ships — but whether at 
Eussell's or Griffin's wharf, or one or more at each, is not 
certain. The number of chests destroyed was, according to the 
newspapers of the times, 342. There was a "body-meeting'^ 
on the 16th of December, 1773. This matter of the tea was 
the occasion of the meeting. The meeting began at Fanueil 
Hall, bat that place not being large enough, it was adjourned 
to the Old South, and even that place could not contain all 
who came. 

Jonathan Williams was moderator. Among the spectators 
was John Kowe, who lived in Pond street, where Mr. Pres- 
cott now lives ; among other things, he said : " Who knows 
how tea will mingle with salt water '?" and this suggestion 
was received with great applause. Governor Hutchinson was 
at this time at the house on Milton Hill, where Barney Smith, 
Esq., lives. A committee was sent from the meeting to 
request him to order the ships to depart. While they were 
gone, speeches were made, tor the purpose of keeping the 



"Sam:'' or, the History op Mystery. 317 

people togetlier. The committee returned about sunset, with 
liis answer, tliat he could not interfere. At this moment the 
Indian yell was heard from the street. Mr. Samuel Adams 
cried out that it was a trick of their enemies to disturb the 
meeting, and requested the people to keep their places — but 
the people rushed out, and accompanied the Indians to the 
ships. The number of persons disguised as Indians is va- 
riously stated — none put it lower than sixty, none higher 
than eighty. It is said by persons who were present, that 
nothing was destroyed but the tea — and this w^as not done 
with noise and tumult, little or nothing being said either by 
the agents or the multitude who looked on. The impression 
was that of solemnity rather than that of riot and confusion. 
The destruction was effected by the disguised persons, and 
some young men who volunteered ; one of the latter collected 
the tea which fell into the shoes of himself and companions, 
and put it into a vial and sealed it up — which vial is now in 
his possession, containing the same tea. 

The contrivers of this measure, and those who carried it 
into effect, will never be known ; some few persons have been 
mentioned as being among the disguised, but there are many 
and obvious reasons wh}^ secresy then, and concealment since, 
were necessary. None of the persons who were confidently 
said to have been of the party (except some who were then mi- 
nors or very young men) have ever admitted that they were so. 
The person who appeared to know more than any one I ever 
spoke with, refused to mention names. Mr. Samuel Adams 
is thought to have been in the counseling of this exploit, and 
many other men, who were leaders in the political affairs of 
the times ; and the hall of council is said to have been in the 
back-room of Edes & Gill's printing-office, at the corner of 
the allev leading to Battle street church, from Court street. 
There are very few alive now who helped to empty the 
chests of tea, and these few will probably be as prudent as 
those who have gone before them. 

At length, after great delays, the New York tea ship 
arrived at Sandy Hook. The pilots, under instructions from 
the city committee, refused to bring her up, and a " Com- 
mittee of Vigilance" soon took possession of her. Brought 
to town, the captain was informed by a deputation from the 
city committee that he must take back ship and cargo. He 



318 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

desired to see the consignee, and was escorted to liim ; but 
the consignee declined to give any orders. Meanwhile, 
another ship, commanded by a New York Captain, arrived at 
the Hook, and, on assurance that she had no tea on board, 
was allowed to come to town. But a report to the contrary 
soon spread, and the captain was obliged to acknowledge that 
he had eighteen chests, not belonging to the East India Com- 
pany, but a private adventure. The indignant populace 
seized the tea and emptied it into the river. A day or two 
after, with great parade, headed by a band playing, " God 
save the King," the bells ringing, and colors flying from the 
liberty pole and the shipping, the captain of the East India 
tea ship was escorted from the custom-house to a pilot boat, 
which took him to the Hook, where, under directions of the 
Committee of Vigilance, the anchors were weighed, and the 
vessel started on her homeward voyage. 

The Charleston tea ship reached that city the same day 
that the New York tea ship reached the Hook. The teas 
were landed, but were stored in damp cellars, where they 
soon became worthless. We give here a very rare copy of 
the resolutions entered upon, at a great meeting of the citi- 
zens of Philadelphia, commending the course of the Boston 
tea rioters. 

A. public meeting of the inhabitants was held at the State 
House, on the 18th of October, at which great numbers 
attended, and the sense of the city was expressed in the fol- 
lowing resolutions : — 

1. That the disposal of their own property is the inherent 
right of freemen ; that there can be no property in that 
which another can, of right, take from us without our con- 
sent ; that the claim of Parliament to tax America, is, in 
other words, a claim of right to levy contributions on us at 
pleasure. 

2. That the duty imposed by Parliament upon tea landed 
in America, is a tax on the Americans, or levying contribu- 
tions on them without their consent. 

3. That the express purpose for which the tax is levied on 
the Americans, namely, for the support of government, admin- 
istration of justice, and defense of his Majesty^s dominions in 
America, has a direct tendency to render Assemblies useless, 
and to introduce arbitrary government and slavery. 



"Sam:'^ or, the History op Mystery. 319 

4. That a virtuous and steady opposition to tliis ministe- 
rial plan of governing America, is absolutely necessary to 
preserve even the shadow of liberty, and it is a duty which 
every freeman in America owes to his country, to himself, 
and posterity. 

5. That the resolution lately entered into by the East 
India Company, to send out their tea to America, subject to 
the payment of duties on its being landed here, is an open 
attempt to enforce the ministerial plan, and a violent attack 
upon the liberties of America. 

6. That it is the duty of every American to oppose this 
attempt. 

7. That whoever shall directly or indirectly countenance 
this attempt, or in anywise aid or abet in unloading, receiv- 
ing, or vending the tea sent, or to be sent out by the East 
India Company, while it remains subject to the payment of a 
duty here, is an enemy to his country. 

8. That a committee be immediately chosen to wait on 
those gentlemen who, it is reported, are appointed by the 
East India Company, to receive and sell the said tea, and 
request them, from a regard to their own character, and the 
peace and good order of the city and province, immediately 
to resign their appointment. 

Upon an hoar's notice, on Monday morning, a public meet- 
ing was called, and the State House not being sufficient to 
hold the numbers assembled, they adjourned into the Square. 
This meeting is allowed by all to be the most respectable, 
both in the numbers and rank of those who attended it, that 
has been known in this city. After a short introduction, the 
following resolutions were not only agreed to, but the public 
approbation testified in the warmest manner. 

1. That the tea, on board the ship Polly, Captain Ayres, 
shall not be lauded. 

2. That Captain Ayres shall neither enter nor report his 
vessel at the custom-house. 

3. That Captain Ayres shall carry back the tea immediately. 

4. That Captain Ayres shall immediately send a pilot on 
board his vessel, to take charge of her, and proceed to Reedy 
Island, next high water. 

5. That the captain shall be allowed to stay in town till 
to-morrow, to provide necessaries for his voyage. 



320 " Sam : " or, the Histoky of Mystery. 

6. That lie shall then be obliged to leave the town and 
proceed to his vessel, and make the best of his way ont of 
our river and bay. 

7. That a committee of four gentlemen be appointed to 
see these resolves carried into execution. 

The Assembly was then informed of the spirit and resolu- 
tion of iSew York, and Charleston, S. C, and the conduct 
of the people of Boston, whereupon it was unanimously 
resolved — 

That this assembly highly approve the conduct and spirit 
of the people of New York, Charleston, and Boston, and 
return their hearty thanks to the people of Boston for their 
resolution in destroying the tea, rather than suffering it to 
be landed. 



CHAPTEPw XXXIV. 

The troubles thicken — Gage re-inforced — Assembly of the first Continental 
Congress at Philadelphia. 

The unscrupulous and brutal Gage had now resumed com- 
mand of the British forces, as well as entered upon his ap- 
pointment as governor of Massachusetts. Boston Neck had 
been fortified by him, and seven regiments been added to his 
command. The " non-importation and consumption bill," re- 
commended by the General Court, had been agreed to by 
many of the colonies, and the general aspect of aftairs be- 
came threatening for the young Sam. 

The Congress, which had now assembled, by agreement, to 
consider the affairs of the country, commenced their session 
at Philadelphia, in defiance of the strenuous opposition of 
Gage. This Congress consisted of fifty-three delegates, the 
leading men of twelve provinces, Georgia, alone, of the 
originally British colonies, being unrepresented. Beside 
others of less note, there were present in this assembly the 
two Adamses, of Massachusetts ; Sherman and Deane, of 
Connecticut ; Philip Livingston, Jay, and Duane, of New 
York ; William Livingston, of New Jersey ; Galloway, of 
Pennsylvania; Kodney, Eoad, and M'Kean, of Delaware; 
Chase, of Maryland ; Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, "Wash- 
ington, and Henry, of Virginia ; the two Rutledges, and 
Gadsden, of South Carolina. The post of honor was freely 
conceded to Yirginia, by the choice of the now aged Peyton 
Randolph as president. Charles Thompson, late master of 
the Quaker academy at Philadelphia, was chosen secretary. 
Samuel Adams, himself a stiff' Congregationalist, moved the 
appointment of an Episcopal chaplain, and Jacob Duche, a 

(321) 



322 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

popular preaclier of Philadelphia, was accordingly appointed. 
As no means were at hand to estimate the relative import- 
ance of the colonies; it was agreed that each province should 
have a single vote. All proceedings were to be with closed 
doors, and nothing was to bo published except by order. 

A committee of two from each province reported, in the 
form of a series of resolves, accepted and adopted by the 
Congress, a " Declaration of Colonial Eights." The enjoy- 
ment of life, liberty, and property were claimed in this 
Declaration as natural rights. The privilege of being bound 
by no law, to which they had not consented by their repres- 
entatives, was claimed for the colonists in their character of 
British subjects. The sole and exclusive power of legislation 
for the colonies was declared to reside in their respective 
Assemblies, reserving to Parliament the enactment of such 
laws only as might be essential to the hona fide regulation 
of trade, but excluding all taxation, internal or external. 
The common law of Enoiand was claimed as the birthrio-ht 
of the colonists, including the right of trial by a jury of the 
vicinage, the right of public meetings, and of petition. A 
protest was made against standing armies maintained in the 
colonies without their consent ; and a similar protest against 
legislation by councils dependent on the crown — this last in 
allusion to the Quebec Act. All immunities hitherto enjoyed 
in the colonies, whether by charter or custom, were claimed 
as established rights, beyond the power of the mother country 
to abrogate. Eleven acts of Parliament, passed since the 
accession of George III.— the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the 
two Quartering Acts, the Tea Act, the Act Suspending the 
New York Legislature, the two Acts for the Trial in Great 
Britain for offenses committed in America, the Boston Port 
Bill, the Act for Eegulating the Government of Massachu- 
setts, and the Quebec Act — were enumerated, in conclusion, 
as having been passed in derogation of the rights of tlie 
colonies. ' (1774.) 

As means for enforcing this claim of rights, fourteen 
articles were agreed to, as the basis of an " American Asso- 
ciation," pledging the associators to an entire commercial 
non-intercourse with Great Britain, Ireland, and the West 
Indies, and the non-consumption of tea and British goods : 
this non-intercourse to be extended to such provinces of North 



" Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 323 

America as should decline to come into the Association, and 
to last till the obnoxious acts of Parliament were repealed. 
The non-importation clauses were to commence in December, 
but the non-exportation clauses were postponed for nine months 
longer. The slave trade was specially denounced, and en- 
tire abstinence from it, and from any trade with those con- 
cerned with it, formed a part of the Association. The 
associators were also pledged to encourage the breeding of 
sheep, and the disuse of mourning. Traders were not to be 
allowed to enhance the price of goods in consequence of this 
agreement. Committees were to be appointed in every 
county, city, and town, to detect and to publish the names 
of all violators of it ; and all dealings with such " enemies 
of American liberty '^ v;ere to be immediately broken off. 

Patrick Henry, who had electrified the Congress by his 
eloquence, was selected by the committee, to which that 
business was intrusted, to draft the petition to the king. 
But this draft, when received, did not give satisfaction. 
Dickinson, lately added to the Pennsylvania delegation, was 
added also to the committee, and a new draft was prepared 
by him, which the Congress approved. 

While the Continental Congress was still in session, mat- 
ters in Massachusetts were fast ver^ino; to a crisis. Gaj^e 
had summoned a House of Kepresentatives to meet him at 
Salem, to proceed to business under the late act of Parlia- 
ment ; but the spirit evinced in the resolutions of the to^vn 
meetings and county conventions induced him to issue a 
proclamation countermanding the Assembly. It was denied, 
however, that the Governor could prorogue the Court till it 
had first met; and, notwithstanding the countermand, most 
of the members elect assembled at Salem on the day appoint- 
ed. As nobody appeared to open the session and administer 
the oaths, they adopted the advice already given by the Essex 
county Convention, resolved themselves into a Provincial Con- 
gress, adjourned to Concord, and there organized by choosing 
John Hancock as president, and for secretary Benjamin Lin- 
coln, a farmer of Hingham, afterward a major-general in the 
revolutionary army. A large committee, appointed to consider 
the state of the province, reported an address to Cage, which 
the Congress adopted; after which they adjourned to Cam- 
bridge, whence a committee was sent to present the address 



324 "Sam:^' or, the History of Mystery. 

to the governor. The Congress, in this address, protested 
their attachment to Great Britain, their loyalty to the king, 
and their love of peace and order, but complained of the recent 
acts of Paliament, the employment of the powers of govern- 
ment to harass and enslave them, the military force concen- 
trated in Boston, and the fortifications erecting there. The 
people, they declared, would never be satisfied till these mili- 
tary preparations were discontinued and those fortifications 
demolished. 

Gage replied that his military preparations were only in 
self-defense, and justified by threats everywhere uttered. 
He disavowed, on behalf of Great Britain, any design to 
harass or enslave ; expressed a wish for harmony ; begged 
them to consider, while complaining of violations of their 
charter, whether their present assembly was not a violation 
of it ; and required them, in conclusion, to desist from their 
illegal proceedings. 

So far from desisting, the Congress appointed a Committee 
of Safety, at the head of which was John Hancock, with pow- 
er to call out the militia. A committee was also raised to 
take measures for the defense of the province, and another 
to procure military stores and provisions, towards which the 
sum of X20,000, ^66,666, was appropriated. Constables and 
other collectors of taxes were ordered to pay no more money 
to the late Treasurer of the province, but to hand over all 
future collections to a new Treasurer appointed by the Con- 
gress. Preble, of Falmouth, an old militia officer, Artemus 
Ward, a colleague of Euggles on the bench of the Worcester 
Common Pleas, and Pomeroy, who led a regiment at the 
battle of Lake George, were commissioned as generals. The 
militia were called upon to choose company and regimental 
officers of their own, and to perfect themselves in military 
discipline. The Congress disavowed any intention to attack 
the British troops ; but, as their Capital was occupied by a 
large force, as the military stores of the province had been 
seized, and as there was too much reason to apprehend a still 
more direct invasion of their rights, they declared tliese 
measures necessary for defense. Gage issued a proclamation 
denouncing their proceedings, to which no attention was paid, 
while the recommendations of the Provincial Congress had 
all the force of law. Gage had no support except in his 



" Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 325 

troops and a few trembling officials, while the zealous co- 
operation of an intelligent, firm, energetic, and overwhelm- 
ing majority of the people gave to the Congress all the 
strength of an established government. 

AYhile the colonies were thus busy in defense of their rights, 
the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia had been again 
visited by Indian war. Surveyor.^, sent under the royal 
authority, at the request of the Assembly of Virginia, to ex- 
tend the western limits of that province, had pushed their 
explorations to a great distance westward. Some of these 
•surveyors had descended the Ohio as far as the Falls, and had 
traced up the Kentucky a considerable distance from its 
mouth. Collisions took place between these explorers and 
the Indians on the Ohio. Under tlie impulse of a false rumor 
of previous hostilities on the part of the Indians, nine per- 
sons, the family of Logan, a chief distinguished for friendship 
to the whites, were murdered in cold blood. This and other 
similar attrocities excited the Indians to revenge. The juris- 
diction of the region about Pittsburgh was still disputed 
between Virginia and Pennsylvania. St. Clair and others, 
who recognized the authority of Pennsylvania, endeavored 
to conciliate matters, and an appeal was made to Sir William 
Johnson, by the Pennsylvania authorities, to induce the Six 
Nations to act as mediators. Just at this time Sir William 
died, but the business was undertaken by his son-in-law, Guy 
Johnson, soon appointed his successor as superintendent of the 
Northern Indians. While these efforts for peace were made 
by Pennsylvania, Conolly and others in the Virginia interest 
were bent on war, in which they were fully supported by 
Governor Dunmore. Daniel Boone was sent to guide back 
by land the surveyors employed on the Lower Ohio ; after 
which he was placed in command of a frontier fort. Volun- 
teers to march against the Indians were easily obtained. 
Major M'Donald, with four hundred men. having assembled 
at Fish Creek, on the Ohio, just below Wheeling, marched 
against and destroyed the Shawanese village on the Mus- 
kingum, some fifteen miles below the present Coshocton ; but 
the Indians made their escape. Dunmore himself, with 
fifteen hundred men, presently moved against the Indian 
villages on the Scioto, while Colonel Lewis, with another divi- 
sion of twelve hundred men. descended the Kanawha. Near 



826 ''Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

tlio moutli of that river, Lewis found the Indians in force, 
under Logan, Cornstalk, and other chiefs. A very hard- 
fought hattle ensued ; the Virginians finally carried the day, 
hut not without the loss of sixty or seventy killed, and a large 
number wounded. Shelby, afterwards first governor of Ken- 
tucky, led a company in this battle. 

Alarmed at Dunmore's approach toward their villages, the 
Lidians had already entered into negotiations, and Dunmore 
sent word to Lewis to put a stop to liostilities — orders which 
the backwoodsmen were somewhat reluctant to obey. Logan 
was not present at the treaty, but he sent the following 
speech : ''I appeal to any white man to say if ever he enter- 
ed Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat ; if ever 
he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During 
the last long and bhxxly war, Logan remained idle in hiis 
cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the 
whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, 
• Loo-an is the friend of white men !' I had even thouoht to 
have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colo- 
nel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, 
murdered all the relatives of Logan, not even sparing women 
and chilth-en. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins 
of any living creature. This called on me for revenge I I 
have sought it ; I have killed many : I have fully glutted 
my vengeance ! For my people, I rejoice at the beams of 
peace ; but do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of 
fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel 
to save his life ! Who is there to mourn for Loo-an ? Not 



one !" 



At Fort Gower, at the junction of the Hocking with the 
Ohio, the officers of Dunmore's army, on their homeward 
march, held a meeting, at which they complimented the 
governor, and resolved to bear faithful allegiance to the 
king, but also to maintain the just rights of America, by 
every means in their power. 

At the same time with these difficulties on the Virginia 
frontier, some collisions took place in Georgia, between the 
settlers on the recently ceded lands, and the Creeks and 
Cherokees, who seemed disposed to support each other in 
case of hostilities. But. instead of having recourse to arms. 
Governor Wright proclaimed a suspension of trade. The 



*' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 327 

Indians, by this moans, were soon brougnt to terras, and a 
new treaty of peace was arranged. 

Two successive cargoes of tea which arrived at Portsmouth, 
had been reshipped. A quantity brought to Annapolis was 
burned, and the ship with it ; the owner himself, to soothe 
the excitement, setting fire to it with his own hand. The 
Assembly of Connecticut gave orders to the towns to lay in 
a double supply of ammunition. They directed the cannon 
at New London to be mounted, and the militia to be fre- 
quently trained. The proceedings of the Continental Con- 
gress were approved, and the same delegates were re-appointed. 

Measures, meanwhile, were everywhere on foot, by the 
appointment of committees of inspection, to enforce the 
American Association. Philadelphia set the example. New 
York followed, by appointing a city committee of sixty, with 
full powers for that purpose. At a third session of the 
Massachusetts Congress, held after a short a^ljournment, the 
delegates to the late Continental Congress made a report of 
the doings of that body, all of which were fully approved. 
It was voted to enroll twelve thousand " minute men " — vol- 
unteers, that is, from among the militia, pledged to be ready 
for service at a minute\s notice ; and negotiations were 
ordered with the other New England colonies, to make up 
this force to twenty thousand. John Thomas, of Plymouth 
county, who had led a regiment in the late war, and William 
Heath, a Koxbury farmer, were commissioned as generals. 
Domestic manufactures were strongly urged upon the atten- 
tion of the people. The same delegates as before were 
appointed to the Continental Congress, to be held in the 
Snrincr. Directions were also issued for the election of a 
new Provincial Congress, to meet early in the year, at which 
time, the members of the last elected Council were requested 
to be present. The Congress then adjourned, to attend the 
annual thanksgiving, of which they had assumed the appoint- 
ment. Their authority was zealously seconded in every town, 
by a Committee of Safety, vested with general executive 
powers, a Committee of Correspondence, and a Committee 
of Inspection, appointed to look after the observance of the 
American Association. 

In the absence of the ships-of-war, usually stationed 
in Narraganset Bay, forty-four pieces of cannon were 



328 ''Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

taken from the batteries at Newport, and conveyed to Provi- 
dence. When called upon by the British naval commander 
for an explanation, Governor Wanton bluntly avowed that 
these cannon had been taken away to prevent their falling 
into his hands, and were intended for use against any power 
that might offer to molest the colony. This movement in 
Ehode Island, was induced b}' a royal proclamation prohibit- 
ing the export of military stores to America. It was soon 
followed up in New Hampshire. Instigated by Paul Eevere, 
from Boston, and led by John Sullivan, a leading lawyer, 
late a delegate to the Continental Congress, and by John 
Langdon, a principal merchant of Portsmouth, a large party 
entered the fort at that place, which was only guarded by 
four or five men, and carried off' a hundred barrels of pow- 
der, some cannon and small arms. 

The doings of the Continental Congress were approved by 
a Convention in Maryland, and the several counties took 
measures for enforcing the Association. The Convention of 
Maryland assumed, in fact, the powers of government ; they 
ordered the militia to be enrolled, and voted <£ 10,000 to pur- 
chase arms. The Assembly of Pennsylvania also approved 
the doings of Congress, and appointed delegates to the new 
one. In South Carolina, delegates to the new Congress, and 
Committees of Inspection to enforce the Association, were 
appointed by a Provincial Convention, of w^hich Charles 
Pinckney was president, called together by the committee of 
ninety-nine. (1775.) 

A general election had recently taken place in Great 
Britain, but the result boded no good to the colonies. Par- 
ties in the new House of Commons stood very much as before. 
Lord North, and his colleagues in the ministry, had an over- 
whelming majority. Ministers not only were sure of sup- 
port from Parliament, and from the personal feelings of the 
king, strongly bent upon bringing the colonies to uncondi- 
tional submission : they were also sustained by the general 
sentiment of the British people, by whom the stigma of 
rebellion was already affixed to the conduct of the colonists. 

Yet there was not wanting, both in and out of Parliament, 
a very respectable minority, opposed to subduing the colonists 
by force, and anxious to promote an amicable adjustment. 
The merchants trading to America, were very averse 



♦' Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 329 

that any occasion should be given to their debtors for post- 
poning or refusing the payment of their debts, or that actual 
war should put a final stop to a profitable trade, already so 
seriously threatened by the American Association, compared 
with which, all former non-importation agreements had been 
limited and inefiicient. The English Dissenters were inclined 
by religious sympathies to favor the colonists. Such frag- 
ments of the old Whig party as had not coalesced with 
the "king's friends,'' headed by the Marquis of Rockingham 
and the Earl of Chatham, supported by the colonial experi- 
ence of Pownall and Johnstone, and sustained by the elo- 
quence of Burke, Bar re, Dunning, and the youthful Fox, 
few, but able, maintained with zeal those principles of lib- 
erty, which had descended to them from the times of the 
English civil wars, and which the threatened civil war in 
America seemed now again to arouse to new life. 

After a long absence, Chatham re-appeared in the House 
of Lords, and proposed an address to the king, advising the 
recall of the troops from Boston ; but this motion, though 
supported by Lord Camden, after a warm debate, was rejected 
by a very decisive majority. In the Commons, the papers 
relating to America were referred to a committee of the 
whole. The petitions for conciliation, which flowed in from 
all the great trading and manufacturing towns of the king- 
dom, ought properly to have gone to the same committee ; 
but the ministers procured their reference to another com- 
mittee for a subsequent day, which the opposition derided as 
a "committee of oblivion." Among the papers laid before 
Parliament, was the petition from the Continental Congress 
to the king. Three of the colonial agents, Franklin, Bol- 
lan, and Arthur Lee, to whose care this petition had been 
intrusted, asked to be heard upon it by counsel, at the bar of 
the House. But their request was refused, on the ground 
that the Congress was an illegal assembly, and the alleged 
grievances only pretended. 

Still persevering in his schemes for conciliation, Chatham 
brouo'ht forward, in the Lords, a bill for settlino- the troubles 
in America. It required a full acknowledgement on the 
part of the colonists, of the supremacy and superintending 
power of Parliament, but provided that no tax should ever 
be levied, except bv colonial Assemblies. It contained, also, 
28 



330 •' Sam : '^ or. the History of Mystery. 

a provision for a Congress of the colonies to make the re- 
quired acknowledgement, and to vote, at the same time, a 
free grant to the king of a certain perpetual revenue, to he 
placed at the disposal of Parliament. Chatham exerted him- 
self, on this occasion, with renewed and remarkable vigor ; 
hut, in spite of all his efforts, after a warm and very pointed 
debate, his bill was refused the courtesy of lying on the 
table, and, contrary to the usual course, was rejected by a 
vote of two to one, at the first reading. 

Agreeably to the scheme foreshadowed in his speech on the 
address. Lord North, in the House of Commons, brought in 
a bill for cutting off the trade of New England elsewhere 
than to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British West Indies — 
intended as an offset to the American Association — and 
suspending the prosecution from those colonies of the New- 
foundland fishery, a principal branch at that time of their 
trade and industry. An address to the throne, proposed by 
the ministers, and carried after great debates, declared tliat 
a rebellion already existed in Massachusetts, countenanced 
and fomented by unlawful combinations in other colonies. 
Effectual measures were recommended for suppressing this 
rebellion ; and the support of Parliament was pledged to the 
king, in the maintenance of the just authority of the crown 
and the nation. 

Burke, as representative of the Kockingham section of the 
opposition, brought forward a series of resolutions proposing 
the abandonment of all attempts at parliamentary taxation, 
and a return to the old method of raising American supplies 
by the free grant of the colonial Assemblies. He supported 
these resolutions in an elaborate speech ; but his motion was 
voted down, as was a similar one, introduced a few days after, 
by David Hartley, on behalf of the Chatham section of the 
opposition. 

We give here the most important portions of this famous 
speech of Burke, which, from the direct light it sheds upon 
questions at issue, between Sam and the old country, is of 
great importance. 

The Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq., on moving his resolu- 
tions for conciliation ivith the colonies, March 22, 1775. 

" I have in my hand two accounts ; one a comparative state- 
ment of the export trade of England to its colonies, as it stood 



" Sam : " ok, the History of Mystery. 331 

in the year 1704, and as it stood in the year 1772. The other, 
a statement of the export trade of this conntry to its colonies 
alone, as it stood in 1772, compared with the whole trade 
of England to all parts of the world (the colonies included,) 
in the year 1704. They are from good vouchers : the latter 
period, from the accounts on your table ; the earlier, from an 
original manuscript of Davenant, who first established the 
inspector general's oflfice, which has been, ever since his time, 
so abundant a source of Parliamentary information. 

The export trade to the colonies consists of three great 
branches. The African, which, terminating almost wholly in 
the colonies, must be put to the account of their commerce, 
the West Indies and the North American. All these are so 
interwoven, that the attempt to separate them would tear to 
pieces the contexture of the whole ; and, if not entirely des- 
troy, would very much depreciate the value of all the parts. 
I therefore consider these three denominations to be, what in 
effect they are, one trade. 

The trade to the colonies, taken on the export side, at the 
beginning of this century, that is, in the year 1704, stood 

thus : 

Exports to North America and the West Indies, £483,265 
To Africa 86,665 

£569,930 
In the year 1772, which I take as a middle year between 
the highest and and the lowest of those lately laid on your 
table, the accounts were as follows : 

To North America and the West Indies £4,791,784 

To Africa 866,398 

To which, if you add the export trade to and 
from Scotland, which had, in 1704, no 
existence 364,000 

£6,022,132 
From five hundred and odd thousands, it has grown to six 
million ; it has increased no less than twelve-fold. This is 
the state of the colony trade as compared with itself at these 
two periods, within this century ; and this is matter for medi- 
tation. But this is not all. Examine my second account. 
See how the export trade to the colonies alone, in 1772, 
stood in the other point of view, that is, as compared with 
the whole trade of England, in 1704: — The whole export 



332 " Sam : ^' or, the History of Mystery. 

trade of England, including that to tlie colonies, in 1704, 
was <£G, 500,000: the exports to the colonies alone, in 1772, 
amounted to X6,024:,000. 

Thus the trade with America alone is now within less than 
X500,000 of heing equal to what this great commercial 
nation, England, carried on at the beginning of this century 
with the whole world 1 If I had taken the largest year of 
those on your table, it would rather have exceeded. But it 
will be said, is not this American trade an unnatural protu- 
berance, that has drawn the juices from the rest of the body ? 
The reverse ; it is the very food that has nourished every 
other part into its present magnitude. Our general trade 
has been p-reatlv auo-mented ; and aug'mented more or less 
in almost every part to which it ever extended; but with 
this material ditference, that of the six millions, which, in the 
beginning of the century, constituted the whole mass of our 
export commerce, the colony trade was but one-twelfth part ; 
it is now (as a part of seventeen million) considerably more 
than a third of the whole. 

This is the relative proportion of the importance of the 
colonies at these two periods ; and all reason concerning our 
mode of treating them, must have this proportion as its basis, 
or it is a reasoning, weak, rotten, and sophistical. 

Mr. Speaker, I can not prevail upon myself to hurry over 
this great consideration. It is good for us to be here. AYe 
stand where we have an immense view of what is, and what 
is past. Clouds indeed, and darkness rest npon the future. 
Let us, however, before we descend from this noble eminence, 
reflect that this growth of our national prosperity, has hap- 
pened within the short period of the life of man — it has 
happened within sixty-eight years. There are those alive, 
whose memory might touch the two extremities ! Eor instance, 
my Lord Bathurst, might remember all the stages of the pro- 
gress. He vras, in 1704, of age at least be made to compre- 
hend such things ; he was then old enough, acta parentum 
jam legere, et quce sit proterit cognoscere virtus. Suppose, sir, 
that the angel of this auspicious youth, foreseeing the many 
^dl'tues, which made him one of the most amiable, as he is 
one of the most fortunate men of his age, had opened to him 
in vision that when, in the fourth generation, the third prince 
of the house of Brunswick had sat twelve years on the throne 



*' Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 333 

of that nation which (by the happy issue of moderate and 
healing councils) was to be made Great Britain, he should see 
his son, Lord Chancellor of England, turn back the current 
of hereditary dignity to its fountain, and raise him to a 
higher rank of peerage, while we enriched the family with a 
new one ; if, amid these bright and happy scenes of domestic 
honor and prosperity, that angel should have drawn up the 
curtain, and unfolded the rising glories of his country, and 
while he was gazing with admiration on the then commercial 
grandeur of England, the genius should point out to him a 
little speck, scarce visible in the mass of the national interest, 
a small seminal principle, rather than a formed body, and 
should tell him — " Young man, there is America, which at 
this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories 
of savage men, and uncouth manners ; yet shall, before you 
taste death, show itself equal to the whole of that commerce 
v/hich now attracts the envy of the world. Whatever England 
has been growing to by a progressive increase of improvements, 
brought in by variety of people, by successsion of civilizing 
conquests and civilizing settlements, in a series of seventeen 
hundred years, you shall see as much added to her by America, 
in the course of a single life." If this state of his country had 
been foretold to him, would it not require all the sanguine cre- 
dulity of youth, and all the fervid glow of enthusiasm, to make 
him believe it? Fortunate man, he has lived to see it ! For- 
tunate indeed, if he lives to see nothing that shall vary the 
prospect, and cloud the setting of his day ! 

This noble effort at conciliation, seems, however, to have 
fallen upon deaf ears. 

The new provincial Congress of Massachusetts, consisting 
of upward of three hundred members, having met at Cam- 
bridge, Elbridge Gerry, a merchant of Marblehead, for two 
or three years past prominent in the General Court, was 
placed at the head of the Committee of Supplies. Active 
measures were taken for armino; and drillino; the militia, and 
especially for procuring powder ; and magazines of provisions 
and military stores began to be laid up at Concord, Worces- 
ter, and other places. An appeal to the people was put forth, 
and a day of fasting and prayer appointed ; after which the 
Congress took a short adjournment. 



334 "Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

Aware of what was going on, Gage sent a detacliment to 
Salem, whence the British troops had heen withdrawn for 
concentration at Boston, to seize some cannon said to be 
deposited there. A hundred and fifty regulars, sent from 
Bjston by water, landed at Salem on this business. Not 
finding the cannon there, they marched in search of them 
toward the adjoining town of Dan vers. At a bridge between 
the towns they encountered a party of militia, under Colonel 
Pickering, who claimed the bridge as private property, and 
proposed to dispute the passage. It was Sunday ; one of the 
Salem ministers interfered, and, taking advantage of rever- 
ence for the day, with much difficulty prevented a collision. 
The soldiers were allowed to pass the bridge, but soon 
returned without finding the cannon. About the same time, 
two officers were sent in disguise to examine the country and 
the roads towards Worcester. 

The Connecticut Assembly, in a special session, though 
they declined to take immediate steps for enlisting troops, 
yet commissioned David Wooster as major-general, and 
Joseph Spencer and Israel Putnam as brigadiers. The 
Massachusetts Congress shortly after voted to raise an army 
for the defense of the province. They sent committees to 
the other New Eno;land colonies to solicit their aid and con- 
currence, and meanwhile took another recess. 

Gage's force at this time amounted to twenty-eight hundred 
and fifty men. As the spring opened, he determined by active 
movements to nip these rebellious preparations in the bud. 
Two officers, sent from Boston to make a reconnoissance, 
reported that some cannon and a quantity of provisions and 
military stores had been collected at Concord, an interior 
town, about twenty miles from Boston. To destroy these 
stores, eight hundred British troops, light infantry and gren- 
adiers, left Boston, under Colonel Smith, with great secresy, 
shortly after midnight, and reached Lexington, within six 
miles of Concord, before sunrise. But the alarm had been 
given — it was supposed their object might be to arrest Han- 
cock and Samuel Adams, who were lodging at Lexington — 
and the minute men of the neighborhood, about a hundred in 
number, had assembled on the green in front of the meet- 
ing-house. The head of the British column came suddenly 



'' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 335 

upon tliem, led by two or three officers, who called upon 
the minute men to throw down their arms and disperse. 
When these orders were not instantly obeyed, a volley was 
fired, by which eight of the minute men were killed, and 
several w^ounded. The British alleged, however, that the 
minute men fired first. The survivors scattered at once, and 
the regulars marched on to Concord. As they approached 
that village, another body of minute men was seen assembled 
on a hill in front of the meeting-house ; but, as the regulars 
advanced, they retired across a bridge to another hill back of 
the town. The bridge was taken possession of by the regu- 
lars, a guard of three companies was stationed at it, and 
three other companies v/ere sent across to destroy some stores 
at a distance. The main body halted near the meeting- 
house, and commenced destroying the stores found there. 
The minute men on the hill, increased by constant accessions, 
presently advanced toward the bridge. The guard of regu- 
lars having retired across it, began to take up the planks, 
and, as the minute men continued to approach, they fired. 
The fire was returned, and several regulars were killed ; yet 
such was the hesitation at this first shedding of blood, that 
the three British companies beyond the bridge were suffered 
to re-cross without molestation. They fell back to the village, 
and the whole detachment commenced a speedy retreat. It 
was time. The alarm had spread; the country was up. The 
minute men, hurrying in from every side, threatened the 
rear, the flanks, the front of the retreating column, and from 
behind trees, fences and stone walls, poured in an irregular 
but galling and fatal fire. The British suffered very severely ; 
the commanding oflficer was wounded ; the retreat was fast 
turning into a rout ; the whole party would have fallen into 
the hands of the provincials but for seasonable aid found at 
Lexington, whither Gage, with wise caution, had dispatched 
Lord Percy, with a supporting column of nine hundred men 
and two pieces of cannon. The artillery kept the minute 
men at bay ; Percy's men received their exhausted compan- 
ions within a hollow square, and the retreat, after a short 
halt, was again re-commenced. By throwing out strong 
flanking parties, Percy covered his main body, and by sun- 
set the regulars reached Charlestown, worn out with fatigue, 
and with a loss in killed and wounded of near three hundred 



336 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

men. The provincial loss was about eighty-five. The ex- 
hausted regulars encamped on Bunker Hill, under cover of 
the ships of war in the river. The next day they crossed 
the ferry to Boston. 

From all parts of New England volunteers marched at 
once, and within a day or two after the fight, Boston was 
beleaguered by a considerable but irregular army. The 
news, forwarded by express, spread fast through the colonies. 
Yet, with the hottest haste which could then be made, it 
took twenty days to reach Charleston, in South Carolina. 

The re-assembled Congress of Massachusetts voted to raise 
thirteen thousand six hundred men, arranged presently into 
twenty-seven regiments. The other New England colonies 
w^ere called upon to make up the army to thirty thousand 
men. Ward was appointed captain general, Thomas lieu- 
tenant general. A regiment of artillery was authorized, the 
command being given to Gridley, appointed also chief engi- 
neer. A captain's commission was promised to any person 
who would enlist fifty-nine men ; any person who could 
procure the enlistment of ten companies was to be made a 
colonel. This method facilitated raising the men, but brought 
many incompetent ofiicers into the service. 

The issue of paper money, one of the greatest miseries of 
war, disused in Massachusetts for the last quarter of a cen- 
tury, was now revived. Provincial notes were issued to the 
amount of ^100,000, g!333,333, in sums small enough to 
circulate as a currency. 

Depositions to show that the regulars had fired first at 
Lexington, without provocation, were dispatched to England 
by a special packet, with a short but energetic address to the 
inhabitants of Great Britain, expressing the resolution " to 
die or be free." Franklin, to whom this address and the 
depositions were inclosed, was requested to have them printed 
and distributed, and to communicate them especially to the 
city of London. But Franklin had sailed for America, leaving 
the Massachusetts agency in the hands of Arthur Lee. 

The appeal to the other New England colonies was not 
made in vain. The Ehode Island Assembly voted an army 
of observation of fifteen hundred men — a measure opposed, 
however, by Governor Wanton and two or three of the assis- 
tants, who entered a protest ag^ainst it as dangerous to their 



'' Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 887 

charter privileges, likely to involve the colony in a war, and 
contrary to their oath of allegiance. Stephen Hopkins and 
Samnel Ward, former governors and political rivals, were 
re-appointed delegates to the Continental Congress. Wanton 
was re-chosen governor at the election shortly after ; but, as 
h<> did not appear to take the oaths, the Assembly directed 
that the duties of the office should be performed by Deputy 
Grovernor Cooke, who continued for the next three years at 
the head of affairs. A body of Ehode Island volunteers had 
appeared before Boston, led by Nathaniel Greene, a young 
iron-master, educated a Quaker, but now disowned by that 
communion on account of his military propensities. He was 
appointed by the Assembly commander-in-chief of the army 
of observation, with the rank of brigadier. 

The Connecticut Assembly voted to raise six regiments of 
a thousand men each, four of them to serve with the army 
before Boston. Wooster, Spencer, and Putnam, already com- 
missioned as generals, were each to have a regiment ; the 
other three were to be commanded by Hinman, Waterbury, 
and Parsons. Putnam was already in the camp before Bos- 
ton. Old man of sixty, as he was, on hearing the news of 
the battle of Lexington, he had left his plow in the furrow 
to put himself at the head of the Connecticut volunteers. 

A special convention of delegates from the nearest towns, 
called together by the New Hampshire Committee of Safety, 
on hearing the news of the battle of Lexington, did not 
think it best to anticipate the action of a Provincial Con- 
gress, already summoned for the seventeenth of May, by 
taking steps for organizing an army ; but the several towns 
were requested to forward supplies to the volunteers who had 
followed Stark to Boston. JMeanwhile, the Massachusetts 
Congress directed enlistments among the New Hampshire 
soldiers in camp. As the new regiments began to be formed, 
the volunteers returned home. Por some weeks, the force 
before Boston was very small, amounting to only two or 
three thousand men. 

In hopes that matters might possibly be reconciled, Gov- 
ernor Trumbull and the Connecticut xissembly sent a depu- 
tation to Gage, to act as mediators — a step which excited 
much alarm in Massachusetts. The Provincial Congress 
remonstrated against anv separate negotiations : and thev 
29 



338 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

voted Gage a public enemy, an instrument in the hands of 
tyrants, whom there was no further obligation to obey. 
Some correspondence took place between Gage and Trumbull, 
but nothino' came of the Connecticut mediation. 

The Assembly of New York having refused to appoint 
delegates to the new Continental Congress, an ardent strug- 
gle had taken place in the city, not altogether unaccompanied 
with violence, on the question of electing members to a 
Provincial Convention, for the purpose of choosing such 
delegates. The popular party carried the day ; and by the 
Convention presently held, twelve delegates were appointed, 
any five of whom were authorized to represent the province 
in the Congress. 

The Corresponding Committee of New York, on receiving 
news of the battle of Lexington, drew up an Association for 
the Defense of Colonial Rights, which everybody was called 
upon to sign — an exj^edient presently adopted in several 
other of the colonies, those especially, in which considerable 
differences of opinion existed. The same committee also 
issued a circular to the several county committees, recom- 
mending the speedy meeting of a Provincial Congress, "to 
deliberate on, and direct such measures as may be expedient 
for our common safety.'^ 

News having arrived of the fight at Lexington, a great 
public meeting was held in Philadelphia, at which measures 
were taken for entering into a volunteer military association, 
which soon pervaded the whole province. Li spite of the 
admonitions of their elders, many of the young Quakers 
took a part in this organization. Mifflin was the moving- 
spirit of the whole. John Dickinson accepted the command 
of a regiment, as did Thomas M'Kean and James Wilson, 
leading lawyers in the city. M'Kean was a native of Penn- 
sylvania, of Scotch-Irish descent ; Wilson was born in Scot- 
land, but he had studied law, and for the last eight years 
had been a resident in Philadelphia, where his talents had 
raised him to conspicuous notice. The Assembl}', which met 
shortly after, appropriated XI, 800 toward the expenses of 
the volunteers. They also appointed a Committee of Safety, 
of which Franklin, just returned from England, was made 
chairman. This committee took measures for the defense 
of Philadelphia, and in a short time assumed the whole 



" Sam :" or, the History of Mystery. 339 

executive authortity. Franklin, Wilson, and Willing- were 
added to tlie congressional delegation ; Galloway, at his own 
earnest request, was excused from serving. Governor Penn 
laid Lord North's conciliatory proposition before the Assem- 
bly, but it did not meet with much favor. 

The Delaware Assembly had already approved the doings 
of the late Continental Congress, and had appointed dele- 
gates to the new one, in which they were presently imitated 
by the Assembly of Maryland. 

The Virginia Convention, which met at Eichmond to 
appoint delegates to the new Continental Congress, had been 
persuaded, by the energy and eloquence of Patrick Henry, 
to take measures for enrolling a company of volunteers in 
each county. Before news had arrived of the battle of Lex- 
ington, Governor Dunmore had ordered the powder belonging 
to the province, to be taken from the public store at Wil- 
liamsburg, and placed on board an armed vessel in the river. 
This proceeding caused a great excitement, increased by news 
of the Lexington fight. Having collected some companies 
of the new volunteers, Henry marched toward Williamsburg, 
and compelled the king's receiver to give bills for the value 
of the powder taken away. Dunmore sent his family on 
board a ship in the river, fortified his palace, and issued a 
proclamation declaring Henry and his coadjutors guilty of 
rebellion ; but their conduct was sustained and approved by 
numerous county conventions. 

In spite of all Martin's efforts to prevent it, a Provincial 
Congress met in North Carolina, simultaneously with the 
Assembly, and, for the most part, composed of the same 
members. Both bodies concurred in approving the proceed- 
ings of the late Continental Congress, and in appointing 
delegates to the new one. News arriving of the battle of 
Lexington, an Association w^as entered into by the friends of 
colonial rights, pledging the associators to defend those 
rights by force, if necessary. The citizens of Mechlenburg 
county carried their zeal so far, as to resolve, at a public 
meeting, to throw off the British connection, and they framed 
a formal Declaration of Independence. We append here, an 
authentic copy of these famous Mechlenburg Eesolutions, 
which should be sacredly preserved in any record of the early 
acts of Sam. 



340 •• Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

MECHLENBUEa RESOLUTIONS. 

The citizens of Meclilenburg county, in this State, made a 
declaration of independence more than a year before Con- 
gress made theirs. 

NoKTH Carolina, "> 
3Iechlenhurg County, May 20, 1775. J 

In the spring of 1775, the leading characters of Mechlen- 
burg county, stimulated by the enthusiastic patriotism which 
elevates the mind above considerations of indi\ddual aggran- 
dizement, and scorning to shelter themselves from the impend- 
ing storm by submission to lawless power, etc., held several 
detached meetings, in each of which the individual senti- 
ments were " that the cause of Boston was the cause of all ; 
that their destinies were undoubtedly connected with those 
of their Eastern fellow-citizens — and that they must either 
submit to all the impositions which an unprincipled, and to 
them an unrepresented Parliament might impose — or sup- 
port their brethren who were doomed to sustain the first shock 
of that power which, if successful there, would ultimately 
overwhelm all in the common calamity. Conformably to 
these principles, Col. Adam Alexander, through solicitations, 
issued an order to each captain's company in the county of 
Mechlenburg (then comprising the present county of Cabanus), 
directing each militia company to elect two persons, and dele- 
gate to them ample power to devise ways and means to aid 
and assist their suffering brethren in Boston, and also gen- 
erally to adopt measures to extricate themselves from the 
impending storm, and to secure, unimpaired, their inalienable 
rights, privileges and liberties, from the dominant grasp of 
British imposition and tyranny. 

In conforming to said order, on the 19th of May, 1775, the 
said delegation met in Charlotte, vested with unlimited 
powers ; at which time official news, by express, arrived of 
the battle of Lexington on that day of the preceding month. 
Every delegate felt the value 9iid importance of the prize, 
and the awful and solemn crisis which had arrived — every 
bosom swelled with indignation at the malice, inveteracy, and 
insatiable revenge developed in the late attack upon Lexing- 
ton. The universal sentiment was — let us not flatter our- 
selves that popular harangues, or resolves — that popular vapor 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 341 

will avert tlie storm, or vanqiiisli our common enemy — let 
us deliberate, let us calculate the issue — the probable results, 
and then let us act with energy, as brethren leao^ued to 
preserve our property, our lives — and what is still more 
endearing — the liberties of America. Adam Alexander was 
then elected chairman, and John McKnitt Alexander, 
clerk. After a free and full discussion of the various objects 
for which the delegation had been convened, it was unani- 
mously ordained — 

1. That whoever directly or indirectly abetted, or in any 
way, form, or manner, countenanced the unchartered and 
dangerous invasion of our rights,- as claimed by Great Britain, 
is an enemy to this country — to America — and to the inhe- 
rent and inalienable rights of man. 

2. That we, the citizens of Mechlenburg county, do hereby 
dissolve the political bands which have connected us to the 
mother country, and hereby absolve ourselves from allegiance 
to the British crown, and abjure all political connection, 
contract, association, with that nation, wliich has wantonly 
trampled on our rights and liberties — and inhumanly shed 
the innocent blood of American patriots at Lexington. 

3. That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independ- 
ent people, which is, and of right ought to be, a sovereign 
and self-governing association, under the control of no power 
other than that of our God, and the general government 
of the Congress — to the maintenance of which independence, 
we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual co-operation, 
our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor. 

4. That, as we now acknowledge the existence and control 
of no law, or legal office, civil or military, within this county, 
we do hereby ordain and adopt, as a rule of life, all, each, 
and every of our former laws — wherein, nevertheless, the 
crown of Great Britain never can be considered as holding 
rights, privileges, immunities, or authorities. 

5. That it is also further decreed, that all, each, and every 
military officer in this county, is hereby reinstitated to his 
former command and authority, he acting conformably to 
these regulations. And that every member present of this 
delegation, shall henceforth be a civil officer — viz: a justice 
of the peace, in the character of a " Committee man," to 



342 " Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

issue process, hear and determine all matters of controversy, 
according to said adopted laws, and to preserve peace, and 
union, and harmony in said county, and to use every exer- 
tion to spread the love of country and fire of freedom, through- 
out America, until a more general and organized government 
be established in this province. 

A number of bylaws were also added, merely to protect 
the Association from confusion, and to regulate their general 
conduct as citizens. After sitting in the Court-house all 
night, neither sleepy, hungry, nor fatigued, and after dis- 
cussing every paragraph, they were all passed, sanctioned, 
and decreed, unanimcymly, about 2 o'clock, A. M., May 20. 
In a few days, a deputation of said delegation convened, when 
Captain James Jack, of Charlotte, was deputed as express to 
the Congress at Philadelphia, with a copy of said resolves 
and proceedings, together with a letter addressed to our three 
representatives, viz.: Kichard Caswell, Wm. Hooper, and 
Joseph Hughes, under express injunction, personally, and 
through the State representation, to use all possible means 
to have said proceedings sanctioned and approved by the Gen- 
eral Congress. On the return of Captain Jack, the delega- 
tion learned that their proceedings were individually approved 
by the members of Congress, but that it was deemed prema- 
ture to lay them before the House. A joint letter from said 
three members of Congress was also received, of the zeal in 
the common cause, and recommending perseverance, order, 
and eneroT. 

The subsequent harmony, unanimity, and exertion m the 
cause of liberty and independence, evidently resulting from 
these regulations, and the continued exertion of said delega- 
tion, apparently tranquilized this section of the State, and 
met with the concurrence and high approbation of the Coun- 
cil of Safety, who held their sessions at Newborn and Wil- 
mington, alternately, and who confirmed the nomination and 
acts of the delegation in their official capacity. 

From this delegation originated the Court of Enquiry of 
this county, who constituted and held their first session in 
Charlotte ; they then held their meetings regularly at Char- 
lotte, at Colonel James Harris', and at Colonel Phifer's, 
alternately, one week at each place. It was a civil court, 



" Sam: '' or, the History of Mystery. 343 

founded on military process. Before this judicature all sus- 
picious persons were made to appear, who were formally tried, 
and banished, or continued under guard. Its jurisdiction was 
as unlimited as toryism, and its decrees as final as the con- 
fidence and patriotism of the country. Several were arrested 
and brought before them from Lincoln, Rowan, and the 
adj acen t countie s. 

In addition to this instrument, is another, claimed to be even 
of prior date ; in which it will be seen that the form which 
the final Declaration assumed under the hand of Jefferson, 
was very clearly sketched out for him by the sagacious brain 
of George Mason. It is the only copy of this singular and 
valuable document which we have seen, and we shall, there- 
fore, lay it before the readers of Sam without hesitation, as 
it at least demonstrates, in connection with the Mechlenburgh 
Resolutions, how general and spontaneous were the sentiments 
of the final Declaration. That Jefferson had this document 
before him, there can be no shadow of doubt : 

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. 

{Copy of the first Draught, hy George Mason.) 

A declaration of rights, made by tlie representatives of 
the good people of Virginia, assembled in full and free con- 
vention ; which rights do pertain to them and to their pos- 
terity, as the basis and foundation of government. 

1. That all men are created equally free and independent, 
and have certain inherent natural rights, of which they can 
not, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity.'"' Among 
which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means 
of acqniring and possessing property, and pursuing and 
obtaining happiness and safety. 

2. That all power is, hy God and nature, vested in, and 
consequently derived from the people ; that magistrates are 
their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to 
tliem. 

3. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for tlie 
common benefit, protection and security of the people, nation 
or community. Of all the various modes and forms of 



844 " Sam : '' or, the Histoky of Mystery. 

government, tliat is best whicli is capable of producing tbe 
greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most eitectu- 
ally secured against tlie danger of mal-administration ; and 
that whenever any government shall be found inadequate or 
contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath 
an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, 
alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most 
conducive to the public weal. 

4. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive 
or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, 
but in consideration of public services ; which not being 
descendible, neither ought the ofiices of magistrate, legisla- 
tor, or judge to be hereditary. 

5. That the legislative and executive powers of the State 
should be separate and distinct from the judicial; and, that 
the members of the two first may be restrained from oppression, 
by feeling and participating in the burthens of the people, 
they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, 
and return unto that body from which they were originally 
taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain, 
and regular elections. 

6. That elections of members to serve as representatives 
of the people in the legislature, ought to be free, and that 
all men having sufficient evidence of permanent common inter- 
est with, and attachment to the community, have the right 
of suffrage, and cannot be taxed, or deprived of their prop- 
erty for public uses, without their own consent, or that of 
their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to 
which they have not, in like manner, assented for the common 
good. 

7. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of 
laws, by any authority, without consent of the representa- 
tives of the people, is injurious to their rights, and ought 
not to be exercised. 

8. That in all capital or criminal prosecutions, a man 
hath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusa- 
tion, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call 
for evidence in his favor, and to a speedy trial by an impar- 
tial jury of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 345 

he can not be found guilty, nor can lie be compelled to give 
evidence against himself; and, that no man be deprived of 
his liberty, except by the law of the land, or the judgment 
of his peers. 

9. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor exces- 
sive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments 
inflicted. 

10. (This article was inserted by the Convention.) 

11. That in controversies respecting property, and in suits 
between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable 
to any other, and ought to be held sacred. 

12. That the freedom of the press is one of the great 
bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by 
despotic governments. 

13. That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body 
of the people trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and 
safe defense of a free State ; that standing armies in time 
of peace, should be avoided, as dangerous to liberty ; and 
that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subor- 
dination to, and governed by the civil power. 

14. (This article was also inserted by the Convention.) 

15. That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, 
can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to 
justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue, and 
by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles. 

16. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Crea- 
tor, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only 
by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and there- 
fore, tliat all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exer- 
cises of religion, acco7'ding to the dictates of conscience, 
unpunished and unrestrained hy the magistrate ; unless, under 
cover of religion, any man disturb the peace, the happiness, or 
the safety of society. And that it is the mutual duty of all, 
to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity, toward 
each other. 

This Declaration of Rights loas the first in America ; it 
received a few alterations or additions in the Virginia Conven- 
tion, (some of them not for the better,) and was afterward 
closelv imitated bv the other United States. 



346 "Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

The foregoing was copied verbatim, from the original, in 
the hand-writing of the anthor. Col. George Mason, of Vir- 
ginia, left in the possession of his son, Gen. John Mason, 
of Georgetown. In order to facilitate the comparison of it, 
with that which was adopted by the Convention, and is still 
in force, it has been thought proper to number tlie articles 
as in the adopted Declaration, omitting the tenth and four- 
teenth, which were inserted entire by the Convention, and to 
place those words in italics which were either expunged or 
altered, and put an asterisk where others were added. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

Arnold's Defeat before Ticonderoga and Crown Point — Gage's Procla- 
mation exempting from pardon John Hancock and Adams — Battle of 
Bunker Hill. 

Previous to the battle of Lexington, the expediency of 
seizing Ticonderoga and Crown Point had been suggested to 
the Massachusetts Committee of Safety. Their attention 
was now re-called to the subject by Benedict Arnold, a New 
Haven trader and shipmaster, who commanded a company of 
volunteers in the camp before Boston. Arnold received a 
commission as colonel, with authority to raise men in Ver- 
mont to attempt the surprise of these fortresses. The 
attention of Connecticut had been called to the same subject, 
and, about the time of Arnold's departure, some persons 
deputed for that purpose had induced Ethan Allen and Seth 
Warner, the two most active leaders among the Green 
Mountain Boys, to raise a force for the same enterprise. 
Arnold, as yet without men, joined Allen's party and 
claimed the command, but, being refused, agreed to serve as 
a volunteer. Allen approached Ticonderoga with eighty 
men, penetrated undiscovered into the center of the fort, 
surprised the commanding officer in his bed, and summoned 
him to surrender " in the name of the great Jehovah and 
the Continental Congress !" Crown Point was taken by 
Warner with equal ease. The total garrisons of both points 
were only sixty men. Upward of two hundred pieces of 
artillery, and a large and precious supply of powder, of 
which there was a great scarcity in tlie camp before Boston, 
fell into the hands of the captors. Arnold was presently 
joined by some fifty recruits, who had seized a schooner. a!id 
(347) 



348 *' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

taken several prisoners and some pieces of cannon, at Skenes- 
borough, a new settlement, (now Whitehall, at the head of 
Lake Champlain,) founded by Colonel Skene, a British officer, 
who had gone to England to solicit an a2)pointment as Gov- 
ernor of Ticonderoga. In this captured vessel Arnold 
proceeded down the lake, entered the Sorel, surprised the 
post of St. John's, where the navigation terminates, captured 
an armed vessel there, and carried off some valuable stores. 
Allen proposed to hold St. John's, but was obliged to retire 
by a superior force from Montreal. Arnold, with his vessels, 
returned to Crown Point. 

The Continental Congress proceeded, meanwhile, to the 
delicate task of appointing a commander-in-chief. Unan- 
imity on this important occasion was much promoted by John 
Adams, very anxious to conciliate the good-will and support 
of the southern colonies. George Washington, present as a 
member of Congress from Virginia, was nominated by John- 
son, of Maryland, and unanimously chosen. It has been 
freely insinuated that " Sam " m-personally had a hand in 
this nomination, which took every body by surprise, as the 
accomplished soldier of fortune Lee, or the English renegade 
Gates, had been more generally looked to as the nominee. 
See our plate on next page for explanation. He accepted 
the appointment in a modest speech, in which he declined 
any compensation beyond payment of expenses. Artemas 
Ward, Charles Lee, Phillip Schuyler, and Israel Putnam, 
were chosen major generals ; Horatio Gates, adjutant general, 
with the rank of brigadier. Ward and Putnam were already 
in the camp before Boston, the one as captain general, under 
a Massachusetts commission, the other as a Connecticut 
brigadier. Schuyler had been recommended as a major 
general by the New York Provincial Congress. Gates, an 
Englishman by birth, formerly a captain in the British 
service, had recently sold out his commission and settled in 
Virginia. Lee was a person of very eccentric habits, a mere 
soldier of fortune, but possessing a high reputation for military 
experience and science, having served with distinction both in 
Europe and America. He held, at the time of his election, 
a lieutenant colonel's commission in the British service. 
During the last eighteen months he had been traveling 
through America, and had recently been induced by Gates to 



''Sam:'' oe, the History of Mystery. 349 

purchase lands in Virginia. For some unknown private 
cause, he was bitterly hostile to the British ministry. Con- 
gress undertook to indemnify him for any pecuniary loss he 
might sustain by entering into their service, and subsequently 
advanced liim ^30,000 for that purpose. Before accepting 
this American appointment, he resigned his British commis- 
sion in a formal letter to the Secretary of War. A strenuous 
opposition was made in Congress to the appointment of both 
Lee and Gates. Washington urged it on account of their 
militarv knowledge and experience, but they both occasioned 
him afterward a great deal of trouble. 

Pomeroy, Heath, and Thomas, of Massachusetts ; Wooster 
and Spencer, of Connecticut ; and Greene, of Ehode Island, 
already holding colony commissions as general officers, were 
commissioned as brigadiers. To these were added Sullivan, 
a member of Congress from New Hampshire, and Mont- 
gomery, of New York, a native of the north of Ireland. 
Though bred a lawyer, and without military experience, 
Sullivan soon proved himself an able officer. Montgomery 
had served with credit in a subaltern rank at the siege of 
Louisburg, and under Wolfe at Quebec. Within two or three 
years past he had disposed of his commission, had married 
into the ■ Livingston family, and settled in New York, and, 
along with Schuyler, had been recommended for military 
rank by the New York Provincial Congress, of which he was 
a member. The colonels and other inferior officers in the 
camp before Boston were confirmed in their commands, and 
presently received continental commissions. The selection 
of general officers by Congress occasioned a good deal of 
heart-burning, particularly the Connecticut appointments. 
Wooster and Spencer, who had led regiments in the last 
French war, complained loudly at being superseded by Put- 
nam, who had not risen in that service beyond the rank of a 
lieutenant colonel. A representation on this subject was 
made to Congress by the Connecticut officers and the Connec- 
ticut Assembly. Pomeroy, from some disgust, had already 
retired, nor did he accept his continental commission. 

Before these new arrangements were completed, an import- 
ant battle had been already fought. Largely reinforced by 
the arrival of additional troops, under Generals Howe, Bur- 
goyne, and Clinton, distinguished and accomplislied officers. 



350 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

the British Army in Boston had been increased to twenty 
regular regiments, amounting to upward of ten thousand 
men. Thus strengthened, Gage had issued a proclamation 
of martial law, offering pardon, however, to all who would 
forthwith return to their allegiance, John Hancock and 
Samuel Adams excepted, whose guilt was too flagitious to he 
overlooked. 

We here insert a copy of this famous Proclamation of the 
English Gates, Avho was no renegade : — 

The minds of men having been gradually prepared for 
the worst extremities, a number of armed persons, to the 
amount of many thousands, assembled on the 19th of April 
last, and from behind walls and lurking holes, attacked a 
detachment of the king's troops, who, not expecting so con- 
summate an act of frenzy, unprepared for vengeance, and 
willing to decline, made use of their arms only in their own 
defense. Since that period the rebels, deriving confidence 
from impunity, have added insult to outrage ; have repeat- 
edly fired upon the king's ships and subjects, w^ith cannon 
and small arms ; have possessed the roads and other commu- 
nications by which the town of Boston was supplied with pro- 
visions ; and, with a preposterous parade of military arrange- 
ment they affect to hold the army besieged ; while part of 
their body make daily and indiscriminate invasions upon 
private property, and with a wantonness of cruelty ever inci- 
dent to lawless tumult, carry depredation and distress 
w^herever they turn their steps. The actions of the 19th of 
April are of such notoriety, as must baffle all attempts to 
contradict them, and the flames of buildings and other pro- 
perty, from the islands, and adjacent country, for some weeks 
past, spread a melancholy comfirmation of the subsequent 
assertions. 

In this exigency of complicated calamities, I avail myself 
of the last eftbrt within the bounds of my duty to spare the 
effusion of blood; to offer, and I do hereby in his Majesty's 
name, offer and promise his most gracious pardon, to all per- 
sons who shall forthwith lay down their arms, and return to 
the duties of peaceable subjects, excepting only from the 
benefits of such pardon, Samuel Adams and John Hancock, 
whose offenses are of too flagitious a nature to admit of any 
other consideration than that of condign punishment. 



*'Sam:^' or, the History of Mystery. 351 

And to the end that no person within the limits of this 
proffered mercy may plead ignorance of the consequences of 
refusing it, I, by these presents proclaim, not only the per- 
sons above named and excepted — but also all their adherents, 
associates and abettors — meaning to comprehend in those 
terms, all and every person, and persons, of what class, 
denomination or description, soever, who have appeared in 
arms against the king's government, and shall not lay down 
the same as afore mentioned ; and likewise all such as shall 
so take up arms after the date hereof, or who shall in anywise 
protect or conceal such offenders, or assist them with money, 
provision, cattle, arms, ammunition, carriages, or any other 
necessary for subsistence or offense, or shall hold secret cor- 
respondence with them by letter, message, signal, or other- 
wise, to be rebels and traitors, and as such to be treated. 

And whereas, during the continuance of the present unnat- 
ural rebellion, justice can not be administered by the common 
law of the land, the course whereof has, for a long time past, 
been violently impeded, and wholly interrupted, from whence 
results a necessity for using and exercising the law martial ; 
I have therefore thought fit, by the authority vested in me, 
by the royal charter to this province, to publish, and I do 
hereby publish, and proclaim, and order the use and exercise 
of the law martial, within and throughout this province, for 
so long time as the present unhappy occasion shall necessa- 
rily require ; whereof all persons are hereby required to take 
notice, and govern themselves as well to maintain order and 
regularity among the peaceable inhabitants of the province, 
as to resist, encounter, and subdue the rebels and traitors 
above described, by such as shall be called upon for those 
purposes. 

The New England army, before Boston, sixteen thousand 
strong, consisted of thirty-six regiments, twenty-seven from 
Massachusetts, and three from each of the other colonies. 
John Whitcombe, who had led a regiment in the French war, 
and Dr. Joseph Warren, president of the Congress, and chair- 
man of the Committee of Safety, had been appointed first 
and second major-generals of the Massachusetts forces. 

To make the blockade of Boston more complete, by order 
of the Committee of Safety, Colonel Prescott, with about a 



352 '- Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

tliousand men, including a company of artillery, with two 
field-pieces, marched at nightfall to take possession of Bunker 
Hill, a considerable eminence just within the peninsula of 
Charlestown, and commanding the great northern road to Bos- 
ton. By some mistake, Prescott passed Bunker Hill and 
advanced to Breed's Hill, at the southern end of the penin- 
sula, and much nearer Boston. Before morning the troops 
had thrown up a considerable redoubt, greatly to the surprise 
of the British, who opened immediately a fire upon them, 
from the ships in the harbor and the batteries in Boston. 
Under the direction of G-ridley and of Knox, late commander 
of a Boston artillery militia company, the provincials labored 
on, undisturbed by the fire. By noon they had thrown up a 
breastwork extending from the redoubt down the northern 
slope of the hill, toward the water. Cannon mounted in the 
redoubt would command the harbor, and miglit make Boston 
itself untenable. To avert this threatened danger, three 
thousand men, picked corps of the British army, led by Gen- 
erals Howe and Pigot, embarked in boats from the wharves 
in Boston, and landed at the eastern foot of Breed's Hill. 
Such was the want of order and system in the provincial 
camp, and so little was the apprehension of immediate attack, 
that the same troops who had been working all night, still 
occupied the intrenchments. General Putnam was on the 
field, but he appears to have had no troops, and no command. 
The same was the case with General Warren, whom the 
rumor of attack had drawn from Cambridge. Two New 
Hampshire regiments, under Stark, arrived on the ground 
just before the action began, and took up a position on the 
left of the unfinished breastwork, but some two hundred 
yards in the rear, under an imperfect cover, made by pulling 
up the rail fences, placing them in parallel lines a few feet 
apart, and filling the intervening space with the new-mown 
hay which lay scattered on the hill. Other troops had been 
ordered to Charlestown ; but, owing to some misapprehension, 
they did not arrive in season to take part in the battle. The 
supply of ammunition was very short. 

Here is Washington Irving's description of this important 
battle, contained in his new " Life of Washington." He here 
takes up the word from Hildreth. 



'' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 353 



THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. 

The sound of drum and trumpet, the clatter of hoofs, the 
rattling of gun carriages, and all the other military din and 
hustle in the streets of Boston, soon apprised the Americans, 
on their rudely fortified hight, of an impending attack. 
They were ill-fitted to withstand it, being jaded by the night's 
labor and want of sleep, hungry and thirsty, having brought 
but scanty supplies, and oppressed by the heat of the weather. 
Prescott sent repeated messages to General Ward, asking 
reinforcements and provisions. Putnam seconded the request 
in person, urging the exigencies of the case. 

Ward hesitated. He feared to weaken his main body at 
Cambridge, as his military stores were deposited there, and 
it might have to sustain the principal attack. At length, 
having taken advice of the Council of Safety, he issued 
orders to Colonels Stark and Bead, then at Medford, to march 
to the relief of Prescott, with their New Hampshire regi- 
ments. The order reached Medford about eleven o'clock. 
Ammunition was distributed in all haste — two flints, a gill 
of powder, and fifteen balls to each man. The balls had to 
be suited to the difierent calibres of the guns ; the powder 
to be carried in powder-horns, or loose in the pocket, for there 
were no cartridges prepared. It was the rude turn-out of 
yeoman soldiery, destitute of regular accoutrements. 

In the meanwhile, the Americans on Breed's Hill were 
sustaining the fire from the ships and from the battery on 
Copp's Hill, which opened upon them about ten o'clock. 
They returned an occasional shot from one corner of the re- 
doubt, without much harm to the enemy, and continued 
strengthening their position until about eleven o'clock, when 
they ceased to work, piled up their intrenching tools in the 
rear, and looked out anxiously and impatiently for the anti- 
cipated reinforcements and supplies. 

About this time. General Putnam, who had been to head- 
quarters, arrived at tlie redoubt, on horseback. Some words 
passed between him and Prescott with regard to the intrench- 
ing tools, which have been variously reported. 

The most probable version is, that he urged to have them 
taken from their present place, where thev might fall into 
30 



354 *'Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

the hands of the enemy, and be carried to Bunker Hill, to 
be employed in throwing up a redoubt, which was part of 
the original plan, and which would be very important, should 
the troops be obliged to retreat from Breed's Hill. To this, 
Prescott demurred that those employed to convey them, and 
who were already jaded with toil, might not return to his 
redoubt. A large part of the tools were ultimately carried 
to Bunker Hill, and a breastwork commenced, by order of 
General Putnam. The importance of such a work was after- 
ward made apparent. 

About noon, the Americans descried twenty-eight barges 
crossing from Boston in parallel lines. They contained a 
large detachment of grenadiers, rangers and light infantry, 
admirably equipped, and commanded by Major General Howe. 
They made a splendid and formidable appearance with their 
scarlet uniforms, and the sun flashing upon muskets and 
bayonets, and brass field piece's. A heavy hre from the ships 
and batteries covered their advance, but no attempt was made 
to oppose them, and they landed about one o'clock at Moul- 
ton's noint, a little to the north of Breed's Hill. 

Here General Howe made a pause. On reconnoitering the 
works from this point, the Americans appeared to be much 
more strongly posted than he had imagined. He descried 
the troops also hastening to their assistance. These were 
the New Hampshire troops, led on by Stark. Howe imme- 
diately sent over to General Gage for more forces and a 
supply of cannon-balls, those brought by him being found, 
through some egregious oversight, too large for the ordnance. 
While awaiting their arrival, refreshments were served out 
to the troops, with " grog" by the bucketful ; and tantalizing 
it was to the hungry and thirsty Provincials to look down 
from their ramparts of earth and see their invaders seated 
in groups upon the grass, eating and drinking, and preparing 
themselves by a hearty meal for the coming encounter. 

The only consolation was to take advantage of the delay, 
while the enemy were carousing, to strengthen their position. 
The breastwork on the left of the position extended to what 
was called the Slough, but beyond this, the ridge of the hill 
and the slope toward the Mystic Eiver, were undefended, 
leaving a pass by which the enemy might turn the left flank 
of the position, and seize upon Bunker Hill. Putnam ordered 



Sam:^' or. the History of Mystery. ooo 

liis chosen officer, Captain Kiiowlton, to cover this pass with 
the Connecticut troops under his command. A novel kind of 
rampart, savoring of rural device, was suggested by the 
rustic General. 

About six hundred feet in the rear of the redoubt, and 
about one hundred feet to the left of the breastwork, was a 
post-aud-raii fence, set in a low foot-wall of stone, and ex- 
tending down to Mystic River. The posts and rails of another 
fence were hastily pulled up and set a few feet in behind 
this, and the intermediate space was filled up with new-mown 
hay, from the adjacent meadows. The double fence, it will 
hd found, proved an important protection to the redoubt, 
although there still remained an unprotected interval of 
about seven hundred feet. 

While Knowlton and his men were putting up this fence, 
Putnam proceeded with other of his troops to throw up the 
works on Bunker Hill, dispatching his son. Captain Putnam, 
on horseback, to hurry up the remainder of his men from 
Cambridge. By this time, his compeer in French and Indian 
warfare, tlie veteran Stark, made his appearance with the 
Xew Hampshire troops, live hundred strong. He had grown 
cool and wary with age,_ and his march from Medford, a dis- 
tance of five or six miles, had been in character. He led his 
men at a moderate pace, to bring them into action fresh and 
vigorous. In crossing the Neck, which was enfiladed by the 
enemy's ships and batteries. Captain Dearborn, who was by 
his side, suggested a quick step. The veteran shook his 
head. " One fresh man in action is worth ten tired ones," 
replied he, and marched steadily on. 

Putnam detained some of Stark's men, to aid in throwing 
up the works on Bunker Hill, and directed him to reinforce 
Knowlton with the rest. 

Stark made a short speech to his men, now that they were 
likely to have warm work. He then pushed on, and did 
good service that day at the rustic bulwark. 

About two o'clock, Warren arrived on the bights, ready to 
engage in their perilous defense, although he had opposed 
the scheme of their occupation. He had recently been elected 
a Major General, but had not received his commission ; like 
Pomerov, he came to serve in the ranks, with a muslcet on 
his shoulder. 



356 *'Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

Putnam offered him the command at the fence ; he declined 
it, and merely asked where he could be of most service as a 
volunteer. Putnam pointed to the redoubt, observing that 
he would be imder cover. " Don't think I seek a place of 
safety," replied Warren quickly; "where will the attack be 
hottest?'' Putnam still pointed to the redoubt. "That is 
the enemy's object ; if that can be maintained, the day is 
ours." Warren was cheered by the troops as he entered the 
redoubt. Colonel Prescott tendered him the command. He 
again declined. " I have come to serve only as a volunteer, 
and shall be happy to learn from a soldier of your experi- 
ence." Such were the spirits assembled on these perilous 
bights. 

The British now prepared for a general assault. An easy 
victory was anticipated; the main thought was, how to make 
it most effectual. The left wing, commanded by General 
Pigot, was to mount the hill and force the redoubt, while 
General Howe, with the right wing, was to push on between 
the fort and Mystic River, turn the left flank of the Amer- 
icans, and cut off their retreat. 

General Pigot accordingly advanced up the hill, under 
cover of a fire from field-pieces and howitzers, planted on a 
small bight, near the landing-place on Moulton's Point. His 
troops commenced a discharge of musketry, while yet at a 
long distance from the redoubts. 

The Americans within the works, obedient to strict com- 
mand, retained their fire until the enemy were within thirty 
or forty paces, when they opened upon them with a tremen- 
dous volley. Being all marksmen, accustomed to take 
deliberate aim, the slaughter was immense, and especially 
fatal to officers. The assailants fell back in some confusion, 
but, rallied on by their officers, advanced within pistol-shot. 
Another volley, more effective than the first, made them 
again recoil. To add to their confusion, they were galled by 
a flanking fire from the handful of Provincials posted in 
Charlestown. Shocked at the carnage, and seeing the con- 
fusion of his troops. General Pigot was urged to give the 
word for a retreat. 

In the meanwhile, General Howe, with the left wing, 
advanced along the Mystic River, toward the fence where 
Stark, Real, and Knowlton were stationed, thinking to carry 



"Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 357 

this slight breastwork with ease, and so get in the rear of 
the fortress. His artillery proved of little avail, being 
stopped bj a swampy piece of ground, while his columns 
suffered from two or three field-pieces, with which Putnam 
had fortified the fence. Howe's men kept up a fire of mus- 
ketry as they advanced; but not taking aim, their shot 
passed over the heads of the Americans. The latter had 
received the same orders with those in the redoubt — not to 
fire until the enemy should be within thirty paces. Some 
few transgressed the command. Putnam rode up, and 
swore he would cut down the next man that fired contrary to 
orders. 

When the British arrived within the stated distance, a 
sheeted fire opened upon them from rifles, muskets, and 
fowling-pieces, all leveled with deadly aim. The carnage, 
as in the other instance, was horrible. The British were 
thrown into confusion, and fell back ; some even retreated to 
the boats. 

There was a general pause on the part of the British. 
The American officers availed themselves of it, to prepare 
for another attack, which must soon be made. Prescott 
mingled among his men in the redoubt, who were all in high 
spirits at the severe check they had given the "regulars." 
Hl' praised them for their steadfastness in maintaining their 
post, and their good conduct in reserving their fire until the 
word of command, and exhorted them to do the same in the 
next attack. 

Putnam rode about Bunker Hill and its skirts, to rally 
and bring on reinforcements, which had been checked or 
scattered in crossing Charlestown Neck, by the raking fire 
from the ships and batteries. Before many could be brought 
to the scene of action, the British had commenced their 
second attack. They again ascended the hill to storm the 
redoubt ; their advance was covered, as before, by discharges 
of artillery. Charlestown, which had annoyed them on the 
first attack by a flanking fire, was in flames by shells thrown 
from Copp's Hill, and by marines from the ships. Being 
built of wood, the place was soon wrapped in a general con- 
flagration. 

The thunder of artillery from the batteries and ships, the 
bursting of bombshells, the sharp discharges of musketry, 



358 '*Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

tlie shouts and yells of the combatants, the crash of burning 
buildings, and the dense volumes of smoke which obscured 
the summer sun, all formed a tremendous spectacle. " Sure 
I am," said Bargoyne, in one of his letters — " Sure I am, 
nothing ever has or ever can be more dreadfully terrible 
than what was to be seen or heard at this time. The most 
incessant discharge of guns that ever was heard by mortal 
ears." 

The American troops, though unused to war, stood undis- 
mayed amidst a scene where it was bursting upon them with 
all its horrors. Eeserving their fire as before, until the 
enemy was close at hand, they again poured forth repeated 
vollejs, with the fatal aim of sharpshooters. The British 
stood the first shock, and continued to advance ; but the 
incessant stream of fire staggered them. Their officers 
remonstrated, threatened, and even attempted to goad them 
on with their swords ; but the havoc was too deadly ; whole 
ranks were mowed down ; many of the officers were either 
slain or wounded, and among them several of the staff of 
General Howe. The troops again gave way, and retreated 
down the hill. 

All this passed under the eyes of thousands of spectators 
of both sexes and all ages, watching from afar, every turn 
of the battle in which the lives of those most dear to them,- 
were at hazard. The British soldiery in Boston, gazed with 
astonishment and incredulity at the resolute and protracted 
stand of the raw militia, whom they had been taught to 
despise, and at the havoc made among their own veteran 
troops. Every convoy of wounded brought over to the town, 
increased their consternation ; and General Clinton, who had 
watched the action from Copp's Hill, embarking in a boat, 
hurried over as a volunteer, taking with him reinforcements. 

A third attack was now determined on, though some of 
Howe's officers remonstrated, declaring it would be downright 
butchery. A different plan was adopted. Instead of advanc- 
ing in front of the redoubt, it was to be taken in flank on 
the left, where the open space between the breastwork and 
the fortified fence, presented a weak point. It having been 
accidentally discovered that the ammunition of the Amer- 
icans was nearly expended, preparations were made to carry 
the works at the point of the bayonet ; and the soldiery 



•' Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 359 

threw off their knapsacks, and some even their coats, to be 
more light for action. 

General Howe, with the main body, now made a feint 
attack on the fortified fence ; but while a part of his force 
was thus engaged, the rest brought some field-pieces to 
enfilade the breastwork on the left of the redoubt. A 
raking fire soon drove the Americans out of this exposed 
place into the inclosure. Much damage, too, was done in 
the latter by balls which entered the sallyport. 

The troops were now led on to assail the works ; those 
who flinched, were, as before, goaded on by the swords of the 
officers. The Americans again reserved their fire until their 
assailants were close at hand, then made a murderous volley, 
by which several officers were laid low, and General Howe 
himself was wounded in the foot. 

The British soldiery this time likewise reserved their fire, 
and rushed on with fixed bavonets. Clinton and Pio'ot had 
reached the southern and eastern sides of the redoubt, and 
it was now assailed on three sides at once. Prescott ordered 
those who had no bayonets, to retire to the back part of the 
redoubt, and fire on the enemy as they showed themselves 
on the parapet. The first who mounted, exclaimed in tri- 
umph, " The day is ours I'' 

He was instantly shot down, and so were several others 
who mounted about the same time. The Americans, however, 
had fired their last round, their ammunition was exhausted ; 
and now succeeded a desperate and deadly struggle, hand to 
hand, with bayonets, stones, and the stocks of their muskets. 

At length, as the British continued to pour in, Prescott 
gave the order to retreat. His men had to cut their way 
through two divisions of the enemy, who were getting in tlie 
rear of the redoubt, and they received a destructive volley 
from those who liad formed on the captured works. By that 
volley fell the patriot Warren, who had distinguished him- 
self throughout the action. He was among the last to leave 
the redoubt, and had scarce done so. when he was shot througli 
the head with a musket ball, and fell dead on the ground. 

While the Americans were thus slowly dislodged from the 
redoubt. Stark, Bead, and Knowlton maintained their ground 
at the fortified fence, which indeed, had been nobly defended 
throughout the action. Pomerov distino'uished himself here 



360 "Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

by his sliarpsliooting, until his musket was shattered by a 
ball. The resistance at this hastily constructed work, was 
kept up after the troops in the redoubt had given way, and 
until Colonel Prescott had left the hill, thus defeating Gen- 
eral Howe's desisfn of cuttino; off the retreat of the main 
body, which would have produced a scene of direful confusion 
and slaughter. Having effected their purpose, the brave 
associates of the fence abandoned their weak outpost, retiring 
slowly, and disputing the ground inch by inch, with a regu- 
larity remarkable in troops, many of whom had never before 
been in action. 

The main retreat was across Bunker Hill, where Putnam 
had endeavored to throw up a breastwork. The veteran, 
sword in hand, rode to the rear of the retreating troops, 
regardless of the balls whistling about him. His only 
thought was to rally them at the unfinished works. " Halt ! 
make a stand here!'' cried he, "we can check them yet. In 
God's name, form, and give them one shot more." 

Pomeroy, wielding his shattered musket as a truncheon, 
seconded him in his efforts to stay the torrent. It was 
impossible, however, to bring the troops to a stand. They 
continued on down the hill to the Neck, and across to Cam- 
bridge, exposed to a raking fire from the ships and batteries, 
and only protected by a single piece of ordnance. The 
British were too exhausted to pursue them ; they contented 
themselves with taking possession of Bunker Hill, were 
reinforced from Boston, and threw up additional works during 
the night. 

The provincials might consider such a defeat as little less 
than victory. Out of three thousand British troops engaged, 
over one thousand were killed or wounded — a loss, such as 
few battles can show. The ministry were so little satisfied 
with the accounts sent them of this transaction, that Gage 
was superseded in command. The provincial loss was four 
hundred and fifty ; but among the slain was General AVar- 
ren. Ardent, sincere, disinterested, and indefatigable, his 
death vras deeply deplored. He left an infant family with 
small means of support ; for whom, by the zeal and perse- 
verance of Arnold, the Continental Congress was at last 
pushed to make some provision. The battle of Bunker Hill, 



*' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 361 

figures in history, as having tested the ability of the provin- 
cials to meet a British army in the field. That, however, 
was a point, on which the provincials themselves never had any 
doubts, and the battle, at the moment, was less thought of 
than now. Nor were the men engaged in it, all heroes. 
The conduct of several officers on that day, was investigated 
by court-martial, and one, at least, was cashiered for cow- 
ardice. 

In contrast with the dastardly conduct of a few animals 
known as men, at the battle of Bunker Hill, we give the 
following letter from one of the daughters of " Sam," written 
about this period, which exhibits the true sentiment of that 
momentous time, and coming even from the hearts of the 
Women of America. 

From the Richmond Enquirer. 

FEMALE PATRIOTISM. 

The manuscript of the following interesting letter was 
politely forwarded to us by a gentleman of Baltimore, and 
was found among some old papers of a distinguished lady of 
Philadelphia. It is a copy of a letter from a lady of Phila- 
delphia to a British officer at Boston, written immediately 
after the battle of Lexington, and previous to the declaration 
of Independence. It fully exhibits the feelings of those 
times. A finer spirit never animated the breasts of the 
Eoman matrons, than the following letter breathes : 

Sir : We received a letter from you w^herein you let Mr. 
S. know that you had written directly after the battle of 
Lexington, particularly to me, knowing my martial spirit, and 
that I would delight to read the exploits of heroes. Surely, 
my friend, you must mean the New England heroes, as they 
alone performed exploits worthy of fame — while the regulars, 
vastly superior in numbers, were obliged to retreat with a 
rapidity unequalled except by the French at the battle of 
Minden. Indeed, General Gage gives them their due credit, 
in his letter home, where he says Lord Percy was remarkable 
for his activity. You will not, I hope, take oftense at any 
expression that, in the warmth of my heart, shall escape me, 
when I assure you that, though we consider you a public enemy, 
we regard you as a private friend ; and while we detest the 
31 



362 '' Sam : " or, the History op Mystery. 

cause you are fighting for, we wish well to your own personal 
interest and safety. Thus far by way of apology. As to the 
martial spirit you suppose me to possess, you are greatly 
mistaken. I tremble at the thought of war, and of all wars, 
a civil one ; our all is at stake, and we are called upon by 
every tie that is dear and sacred, to exert the spirit that 
Heaven has given to us in this righteous struggle for 
liberty. 

I will tell you what I have done. My only brother I have 
sent to the camp, with my prayers and blessings ; I hope he 
will not disgrace me ; I am confident he will behave with 
honor, and emulate the great examples he has before him ; 
and had I twenty sons and brothers, they should go. I have 
retrenched every superfluous expense in my table and family ; 
tea I have not drank since last Christmas, nor bought a new 
cap or gown since your defeat at Lexington ; and, what I 
never did before, have learned to knit, and am no^ making 
stockings of American wool for my servants, and this way 
do I throw in my mite for the public good. I know this, that 
as free I can die but once, but as a slave I shall not be 
worthy of life. I have the pleasure to assure you that these 
are the sentiments of all my sister Americans. They have 
sacrificed both assemblies, parties of pleasure, tea drinking, 
and finery, to that great spirit of patriotism that actuates all 
ranks and degrees of people throughout this extensive conti- 
nent. If these are the sentiments of females, what must 
glow in the breasts of our husbands, brothers and sons? 
They are, as with one heart, determined to die or be free. It 
is not a quibble in politics, a science which few understand, 
which we are contending for ; it is this plain truth, which 
the most ignorant peasant knows, and is clear to the weakest 
capacity, that no man has a right to take their money without 
their consent. The supposition is ridiculous and absurd, as 
none but highwaymen and robbers attempt it. Can you, my 
friend, reconcile it with your own good sense, that a body of 
men in Great Britain, who have little intercourse with 
America, and, of course, know nothing of us, nor are sup- 
posed to see or feel the misery they would inflict upon us, 
shall invest themselves with a power to command our lives 
and properties, at all times and in all cases whatsoever ? You 
say you are no politiciau. Oh, sir, it requires no Machia- 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 363 

velian head to develope this, and to discover this tyranny 
and oppression. It is written with a sunbeam. Every one 
will see and know it, because it will make them feel, and we 
shall be unworthy of the blessing of Heaven if we ever 
submit to it. 

All ranks of men among us are in arms. Nothing is 
heard now in our streets but the trumpet and the drum ; 
and the universal cry is ''Americans to arms." All your 
friends are officers; there are Captain S. B., Lieutenant B., 
and Captain J. S. We have five regiments in the city and 
county of Philadelphia, complete in arms and uniform, and 
very expert in their military manoeuvres. We have companies 
of light horse, light infantry, grenadiers, riflemen, and 
Indians, several companies of artillery, and some excellent 
brass cannon and field pieces. Add to this, that every county 
in Pennsylvania, and the Delaware government, can send 
two thousand men to the field. Heaven seems to smile on 
us, for in the memory of man never were known such quan- 
tities of flax, and sheep without number. We are making 
powder fast, and do not want for ammunition. In short, we 
want for nothing but ships of war to defend us, which we could 
procure by making alliances ; but such is our attachment to 
Great Britain, that we sincerely wish for reconciliation, and 
cannot bear the thought of throwing off" all dependence upon 
her, which such a step would assuredly lead to. The God of 
Mercy will, I hope, open the eyes of our king, that he may 
see that in seeking our destruction, he will go near to com- 
plete his own. It is my ardent prayer that the eff'usion of 
blood may be stopped. We hope yet to see you in this city, 
a friend to the liberties of America, which will give infinite 
satisfaction to Your sincere friend, C. L. 

lb Captain S., in Boston. 

But here is a still more touching incident, which, though 
at first glance Amazonian in aspect, reveals truthfully the 
true sentiment of the mothers of the heroes of an heroic 
period : 

From the Dedham (Mass.) Register, of December, 1820. 
FEMALE PEESEVEEANCE. 
We were much gratified to learn that during the sitting 
of the Court in this town, the last week, Mrs. Gannett, of 



364 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

Sliaron, in this county, presented for renewal, her claims for 
services rendered her country, as a soldier in the revolution- 
ary army. The following brief sketch, it is presumed, will 
not be uninteresting : 

This extraordinary woman is now in the sixty-second year 
of her age. She possesses a clear understanding, and a 
general knowledge of passing events — fluent in speech, and 
delivers her sentiments in correct language, with deliberate 
and measured accents — easy in her deportment, affable in 
her manners, robust and masculine in her appearance. She 
was about eighteen years of age when our revolutionary 
struggle commenced. The patriotic sentiments which in- 
spired the heroes of those days, and urged them to battle, 
found their way to a female bosom. The news of the carnage 
w^hich had taken place on the plains of Lexington, had 
reached her dwelling — the sound of the cannon at Bunker 
Hill had vibrated on her ears — yet, instead of diminishing 
her ardor, it only served to increase her enthusiasm in the 
sacred cause of liberty, in which cause she beheld her country 
engaged. She privately quitted her peaceful home, and the 
habiliments of her sex, and appeared at the headquarters of 
the American army as a young man, anxious to join his 
efforts to those of his countrymen, in their endeavors to 
oppose the inroads and encroachments of the common enemy. 
She was received and enrolled in the army by the name of 
Robert SJiurtliffe. For the space of three years she performed 
the duties, and endured the hardships and fatigues, of a 
soldier, during which time she gained the confidence of her 
officers by her expertness and precision in the manual exer- 
cise, and by her exemplary conduct. She was a volunteer in 
several hazardous enterprises, and was twice wounded by 
musket balls. So well did she contrive to conceal her sex, 
that her companions in arms had not the least suspicion that 
this " blooming soldier " fighting by their sides was a female, 
till at length, a severe wound which she had received in 
battle, and which had well nigh closed her earthly campaign, 
occasioned the discovery. On her discovery, she quitted the 
army, and became intimate in the families of General Wash- 
ington and other distinguished officers of the revolution. A 
few years afterward she was married to her present husband, 
and is now the mother of several children. Of these facts 



" Sam :'' OR, THE History of Mystery. 365 

there can be no doubt. There are many living witnesses in 
this county, who recognized her on her appearance at the 
court, and were ready to attest to her services. We often 
hear of sucli heroines in other countries, but this is an 
instance in our own country, and within the circle of our 
acquaintance. 

Heath was appointed major-general in Warren's place, 
and a similar commission was given to Frye, both colonels in 
the Masachusetts army, and Frye, commander-in-chief of the 
Massachusetts forces at the unfortunate capture of Fort Wil- 
liam Henry. But these commissions, and the other previous 
ones, were soon superseded by the new continental appoint- 
ments. About a fortnight after the battle of Bunker Hill, 
Washington, attended by several ardent young men from 
the southern provinces, arrived in the camp, and assumed 
the command. He found there, excellent materials for an 
army, but great deficiencies of arms and ammunition, and 
some great defects of discipline and organization. To pre- 
vent the British, not greatly inferior in numbers, and 
perfectly armed, equipped, and disciplined, from penetrating 
into the country, it was necessary to guard a circuit of eight 
or nine miles, Washington established his head-quarters at 
Cambridge. Ward, in command of the right wing, was 
stationed at Eoxbury ; and Lee, with the left, on Prospect 
Hill. Joseph Trumbull, a son of the governor of Connecti- 
cut, and commissary for the troops of that province, was 
appointed commissary-general of the consolidated army. 
The post of quartermaster-general was given by Washing- 
ton, under authority from Congress, to Mifflin, who had fol- 
lowed him from Philadelphia as an aid-de-camp. The post 
of secretary to the commander-in-chief was bestowed on 
Joseph Reed, another Philadelphian ; but, on Eeed's return 
to Philadelphia a few months afterward, Washington selected 
for that important and confidential duty, Robert H. Harri- 
son, a lawyer of Maryland, with whom he had formerly had 
business relations, and who continued for several years to 
discharge its responsible duties, very much to the general's 
satisfaction. Edmund Randolph, a nephew of Peyton Ran- 
dolph, but whose father, the attorney-general of Virginia, 



366 *' Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

was a decided Koyalist, had accompanied the commander-in- 
chief to Boston, and acted for a while as aid-de-camp. But 
he was presently recalled to Virginia bj his uncle's sudden 
death. 

The camp was soon joined by some companies of riflemen 
from Maryland, Virginia, and Western Pennsylvania, 
enlisted under the orders of Congress. One of the Virginia 
companies was led by Daniel Morgan, formerly a wagoner, 
in which capacity he had been wounded at Braddock's defeat. 
A man of Herculean frame and indomitable energy, his 
qualities as a partisan soon made him distinguished. 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

The first Sea Fight — and origin of the U. S. Navy — Ethan Allen taken 
captive and sent to England — Capture of St. Johns and Montreal — The 
expedition against Quebec — Reorganization of the Army — Lord Howe in 
Boston — Movements of the British in Virginia. 

The Gasp^, an armed schooner in the revenue service, had 
given great and often unnecessary annoyance to the shipping 
employed in Narraganset Bay. A plan, in consequence, had 
been formed for her destruction. Enticed into shoal water 
by a schooner, to which she had been induced to give chase, 
she grounded, and was boarded and burned by a party from 
Providence. In consequence of this daring outrage, an act 
of Parliament had passed for sending to England for trial 
all persons concerned in the colonies in burning or destroying 
his Majesty^s ships, dock-yards, or military stores. A reward 
of £600 sterling, and a free pardon to any accomplice, was 
offered for the discovery of the destroyers of the Gasp^ ; and 
a board was constituted to examine into the matter, com- 
posed of the governor of Ehode Island, the chief justices of 
Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey, and the judge 
of the Admiralty for the Northern District. But, though 
the perpetrators were well known, no legal evidence could be 
obtained against them. 

Hildreth speaks of this as the first sea fight, from which 
statement, however, the old records vary somewhat, as the 
following narrative will show : — 

THE FIRST SEA FIGHT. 

The late Eev. Dr. Bentley, of Salem, Massachusetts, whose 
decease was equally deplored by the friends of religion, 

(367) 



368 *' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

patriotism, and literature — who for man]^ years enriched the 
columns of the '' JEssex Register ^^ ^\ii\\ his remarks, when 
speaking of the revolutionary pension law, seized the oppor- 
tunity to give the following interesting scrap of history : — 
" The following history may discover how a man may 
engage in the public service, and yet not be qualified accord- 
ing to law, for the bounty of a term short of one year's service. 
Joshua Ward, who belonged to Salem, but who lived many 
years at Marble head, a painter, marched on the 19th of 
April to Charlestown Neck, as a fifer of the first company in 
Colonel Timothy Pickering's regiment of militia, commanded 
by Captain William Pickman, and soon after entered the 
army under Captain Thomas Barnes. From Cambridge, he 
was ordered to Watertown to guard the public stores, and 
remained at this station till the battle of Bunker Hill. He 
then joined the regiment under Colonel Mansfield, on Pros- 
pect Hill, in Charlestown, in the Massachusetts line, and 
acted as fife -major till he joined General Sullivan's brigade, 
on Winter Hill, when he was promoted to fife-major-general. 
He continued in the service till the first day of January, 
1776, when he was discharged— having continued the time 
of his enlistment. He then entered Captain Benjamin Ward's 
company and performed garrison duty at Fort William and 
Mary, now Fort Pickering, till the 19th of June following. 
He then volunteered with the first Lieutenant Haraden, a 
well-known, brave and able ofiicer, with others of his com- 
panions, on board the Tyrannicide, a public armed brig of 
fourteen guns and seventy-five men, commanded by Captain 
John Fiske, afterward a major-general in Massachusetts, and 
eminent by his public services. He was in this brig during 
three cruises, and was at the taking of eight prizes, the first 
of which was the king's armed schooner Dispatch, belonging 
to Lord Howe's fleet, then on their passage to New York, it 
being the 10th July. In the engagement one man was killed 
in the Tyrannicide, three wounded, and one died of his wounds. 
He continued in the vessel till the 14th of February, 1777, 
when he returned from a four and a half month's cruise in 
the West Indies, and all w^ere discharged. He is now 72 
years of age. In i\\Q action with the Dispatch, which lasted 
seven glasses, her commander, John Goodrich, 2d lieutenant 
of the Eenown, of fifty guns, then in the fleet, was killed, and 



Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 369 



several men. Mr. Moore sailing master, was wounded, and 
his limb amputated. Mr. CoUingsin, midshipman, had his 
limb amputated, but he died. The Dispatch was so disabled 
that they were obliged to take her in tow, and they brought 
her into Salem, after being out seventeen days. The Dis- 
patch had eight carriage guns, twelve swivels, and a comple- 
ment of forty-one picked men from different ships in the 
fleet. This ivas the first sea fight. The Tyrannicide was the 
first vessel that was built for the public service, and her com- 
mission was signed by John Hancock. The Dispatch was no 
prize to the crew, excepting a small bounty on her guns. 
And yet this worthy man in his poverty comes not within 
the letter of the law, and instead of his bounty, must accept 
a hearty recommendation to the generous care of his fellow- 
citizens. 

Our narrative carries us on to the period when the downfall 
of British authority in the colonies has become a fixed fact 
in history, and the United Thirteen Colonies a firm-rooted 
empire on the face of the New World ! " Sam," as we have 
now perceived, is stretching his huge arm toward the sea. 

A constant alarm was kept up by British cruisers, wliich 
hovered on the coast of Xew England, and landed occasionally 
to obtain supplies. Lieutenant Mowatt, who commanded one 
of these cruisers, chased a vessel from the West Indies into 
Gloucester harbor. The boats sent to take her being repulsed 
by the townspeople, Mowatt fired upon the town, and attempt- 
ed to land. But he was again repulsed, with the loss of his 
boats, and thirty-five men taken prisoners. Narraganset 
Bay was much annoyed by a squadron of British cruisers, 
and Bristol was bombarded to frighten the inhabitants into 
furnishing a supply of provisions. 3Iowatt was presently 
sent to Falmouth, (now Portland,) where, a few months 
before, the loading of a royal mast ship had been obstructed 
and Mowatt himself arrested and treated with some rudeness. 
On the refusal of the inhabitants to give up their arms, after 
allowing two hours for the removal of the women and chil- 
dren, a bombardment was commenced, and that rising town 
of five hundred houses was presently in flames. The towns- 
people, not to be so frightened, stood to their arms, and 
defeated Mowatt's attempt to land. Such outrages did but 
exasperate feelings already sufiiciently inflamed. 



370 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

It was not long before the colonists tried their hands also 
at maritime warfare. Ehode Island, Massachusetts, and 
Connecticut equipped each an armed vessel or two. In Mas- 
sachusetts a law was passed to authorize and encourage the 
fitting out of privateers, and a court was established for the 
trial and condemnation of prizes. Maryland, Virginia, and 
South Carolina each had their navy boards and armed 
vessels, and so did Pennsylvania for the defense of the 
Delaware. Five or six armed vessels, fitted out by Wash- 
ington, cruised to intercept the supplies received at Boston 
by sea. Most of the officers of these vessels proved incom- 
petent, and the men mutinous ; but Captain Manly, of the 
schooner Lee, furnished a brilliant exception. In the midst 
of storms he kept the hazardous station of Massachusetts 
Bay, and, among other prizes, captured an ordnance brig, 
laden with heavy guns, mortars, and working tools — a most 
acceptable supply to the continental army. 

Under instructions from the Assembly of Ehode Island, 
the delegates of that colony called the attention of the Con- 
tinental Congress to the subject of a navy. A Marine 
Committee was appointed, and four armed vessels were 
ordered to be fitted out at continental expense. All ships of 
war employed in harassing the colonies, and all vessels 
bringing supplies to the British forces, were declared lawful 
prize. Privateering was authorized, and the colonies were 
requested to establish courts for the trial of captures, reserving 
an appeal to Congress. Kules and regulations for the navy 
were adopted; and the Naval Committee were presently 
authorized to fit out thirteen frigates, of from twenty-four to 
thirty-two guns. 

The clergy and the seigneurs of Canada, well satisfied 
with the late Quebec Act, were inclined to sustain the British 
authority; but some partisans of the American cause were 
hoped for among the cultivators and citizens, as well as 
among the immigrants since the conquest. The body of 
the Canadian people, notwithstanding a proclamation of 
martial law, paid very little attention to Grovernor Carleton's 
loud calls upon them to arm for the defense of the province. 
Hinman^s Connecticut regiment, stationed at Ticonderoga, 
at the head of which Schuyler placed himself, descended the 
lake in boats, entered the Sorel, and occupied the Isle Aux 



" Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 371 

Noix. After an unsuccessful attempt on St. John's, where 
was a garrison of five or six hundred British troops, the 
principal regular force in Canada, leaving the command to 
^Montgomery, Scliuyler returned to the rear to hasten forward 
men and supplies. The equipment of the New York regi- 
ments was greatly delayed by the difficulty of finding arms, 
and Wooster was ordered from Albany, to join Montgomery. 

Meanwhile Ethan Allen, with a small party, principally 
Canadians, was taken prisoner in a wild attempt, without 
orders, to surprise Montreal. Contrary to Carleton's usual 
conduct, Allen experienced very hard usage, being sent in 
irons to England, and treated rather as a leader of banditti 
than as a prisoner of war. 

Joined by Wooster and some Canadians, Montgomery 
renewed the siege of St. John's. By the surprise and cap- 
ture of Chambly, lower down the Sorel, against which he 
sent a detachment, he obtained a seasonable supply of ammu- 
nition, which enabled him to press the siege of St. John's 
with vigor. For the relief of that important post. Governor 
Carleton exerted himself to raise the Canadian militia ; but, 
in attempting to cross from the island of Montreal to the 
south bank of the St. Lawrence, he was repulsed by an 
advanced division of Montgomery's army. Another party 
of Canadian militia, from the neighborhood of Quebec, 
advancing up the Sorel, was driven down that river to its 
junction with the St. Lawrence, at which point the Ameri- 
cans established a post and erected batteries. Belief thus cut 
off, the garrison of St. John's presently surrendered as prison- 
ers of war; after which IMontgomery pushed forward to 
Montreal, a town at that time of but two or three thousand 
inhabitants, open, and without fortifications. Carleton passed 
down the river in a fast-sailing boat, and escaped to Quebec. 
General Prescott, with the feeble garrison, attempted to 
escape the same way, but was interrupted by the batteries 
at the Sorel, and taken prisoner. 

With the woolens found at Montreal the American general 
was enabled to clothe his troops, of which they stood in great 
need. A regiment of Canadians was organized under Col- 
onel Livingston ; but Montgomery encountered great dis- 
couragements in the lateness of the season and the insubor- 
dination of his soldiers, of whom many, disgusted with the 



372 '' Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

hardsliips of tlie service, deserted and returned home. Still 
he pushed on for Quebec, in expectation of meeting there a 
co-operating force. 

When obliged to give up the command of Ticonderoga to 
Hinraan, Arnold had behaved with a good deal of insubordi- 
nation; had disbanded his men, and returned in disgust to 
the camp before Boston. There, however, he presently- 
obtained employment in an enterprise suggested some time 
before by Brewer, colonel of one of the Massachusetts regi- 
ments. Detached with eleven hundred men, including a 
company of artillery and Morgan's Virginia riflemen, to 
co-operate with the northern army, against Quebec, Arnold 
ascended in boats to the head of the Kennebec, and, guided 
in part by the journal of a British officer who had passed 
over that route some fifteen years before, struck across the 
wilderness to the head streams of the Chaudiere, down which 
he descended toward the capital of Canada. In crossing these 
uninhabited wilds, the troop suffered severely, and the rear 
division, discouraged and short of provisions, turned about 
and gave over the enterprise. With the other divisions 
Arnold persevered ; and, after a six weeks' struggle, a few 
days before Montgomery entered Montreal, he reached the 
south bank of the St. Lawrence, opposite Quebec. He was 
kindly received by the Canadian peasantry, and his sudden 
appearance caused the greatest alarm. Quebec had but two 
hundred regular troops ; there was a good deal of discontent 
among the inhabitants. Could Arnold have crossed at once, 
he might, perhaps, in the absence of Carleton, have got pos- 
session of the city. But, on some intimation of his approach, 
the boats had all been removed or destroyed, and some days 
elapsed before he could collect birch-bark canoes in which to 
cross. Meanwhile Carleton made his appearance, having 
escaped down the river from Montreal. He sent all the non- 
combatants out of the city ; organized the traders and others 
into military companies , landed the sailors ; and, with his 
force thus increased to near twelve hundred men, put the 
town into a complete state of defense. Two armed vessels 
were stationed in the river to intercept Arnold; but he 
crossed in the night ; and, ascending the same rugged preci- 
pices which AYolfe had climbed before him, drew up his 
forces on the Plains of Abraham. His little armv, hardly 



*' Sam :" or, the Histoky of Mystery. 373 

five hundred and fifty effective men, approached the city; 
but tlie garrison did not come out to meet him ; and, as he 
had no means to undertake a siege, he retired some twenty 
miles up the river to wait for Montgomery, of whose approach 
he had notice. 

Leaving Wooster in command at Montreal, Montgomery 
advanced down the river ; but all his Connecticut troops be- 
came entitled to their discharge on the tenth of December, 
and his ranks were so tliinned by desertions and the detach- 
ments he was obliged to leave behind him, that, when he 
joined Arnold, their united force did not exceed a thousand 
men. They returned, however, to Quebec, and opened bat- 
teries against it ; but their artillery, only a few field pieces, 
was too light to take any effect. The works were extensive ; 
some weak point might perhaps be found ; an assault was 
resolved u23on, as the last desperate chance. While a snow- 
storm was waited for, to cover the movement, deserters carried 
into the town information of what was intended. To distract 
the enemy's attention, two feints were made against the 
upper town. It was against two opposite sides of the lower 
town that the real attacks w^ere directed; the one led by 
Montgomery, the other by Arnold. Some rockets, thrown 
up as a signal, being seen by the enemy, they took the alarm 
and hastened to the ramparts. Montgomery, with the New 
York troops, approached the first barrier, on the south side 
of the lower town. The enemy fled ; not, however, without 
discharging a piece of artillecy, by which Montgomery and 
his two aids were slain. Discouraged by the loss of their 
leader, this division abandoned the attack. Arnold, on his 
side, pushed through the northern suburb, and approached a 
a two-gun battery, the advanced post of the enemy in that 
direction. While cheering on his men, the bone of his leg was 
shattered by a musket ball. He was borne from the field ; but 
Morgan, at the head of his riflemen, made a rush at the battery, 
carried it, and took the guard prisoners. Morgan had no guide ; 
the morning was dark ; totally ignorant of the situation of 
the town, he came to a halt. He w^as joined by some frag- 
ments of other companies, and, when the day dawned, found 
himself at the head of some two hundred men, who eagerly 
demanded to be led against the second barrier, a few paces 
in front, but concealed from sight by a turn in the street. 



374 "Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

Morgan gave the order, and his men advanced and planted 
their ladders ; but those who mounted saw on the other side 
a double hedge of bayonets ready to receive them, while a 
fire, at the same time, was opened by parties of the enemy 
relieved from duty elsewhere by the failure of the other 
attack, and sent out of the gates to take them in the rear. 
Exposed in a narrow street to an incessant fire, Morgan's 
ranks were soon thinned. His men threw themselves into 
the store-houses on each side of the street ; but, overpowered 
by numbers, benumbed with cold, their muskets rendered 
unserviceable by the snow, they were obliged to surrender. 
Not less than four hundred men were lost in this unlucky 
assault, of whom three hundred became prisoners. Arnold 
retired with the remnant of his troops three miles up the 
river, and, covering his camp with ramparts of frozen snow, 
kept up the blockade of Quebec through the winter. 

While these operations were carried on in Canada, the 
term of service of the troops before Boston was rapidly ap- 
proaching its termination. The time of the Connecticut and 
Ehode Island regiments expired early in December. None 
of the troops were engaged for a longer period than the first 
of April. 

A committee from Philadelphia had visited the camp, and, 
in consultation with Washington, and with committees from 
the New England colonies, had agreed upon a plan, presently 
sanctioned by Congress, for the reorganization of the besieg- 
ing army. It was to consist, according to this plan, of 
twenty-six regiments, beside riflemen and artillery : Massa- 
chusetts to furnish sixteen, Connecticut five. New Hampshire 
three, and Ehode Island two — in all, about twenty thousand 
men ; the officers to be selected by Washington, out of those 
already in service, willing and qualified to act. But this was 
a business much easier to plan than to execute. The selection 
of officers was a most delicate and embarrassing matter, in 
which, not qualifications only, but provincial and personal 
prejudices had to be consulted, for not a man would enlist 
till he knew the officers under wliom he was to serve. Even 
then, enlistments, though only for a year, were obtained with 
difficulty. The first effervescence of patriotism was over. 
The barracks were cold and comfortless, and the supply of 
fuel scanty. A short experience of military life had damped 



** Sam :'' or, the History of Mystery. 375 

the ardor of many. All the new recruits required a furlough 
to visit their families. Those who did not re-enlist refused 
to serve a moment beyond their tmiQ. One or two of the 
Connecticut regiments marched off some days beforehand. 
The camp was in danger of being left bare /and, to supply 
the deficiency in the Continental regiments, five thousand 
militia had to be called in, who answered much better than 
Washington had feared. 

Surrounded with difficulties, the commander-in-chief exhi- 
bited a fortitude, assiduity, discrimination, and patience abso- 
lutely essential for the station which he held, and amply 
vindicating the judgment of Congress. In his private cor- 
respondence he could not wholly suppress his feelings. He 
complained bitterly of " an egregious want of public spirit," 
and of " fertility in all the low arts of obtaining advantage." 

Here is one precious example which we have to offer, of 
the metal and character of the foe with whom "Sam" in 
these early times was compelled, against his will, to contend, 
in the first agonies of separation from the Primal Stock. We 
have other instances of the sort in reservation. 

Parliament promptly voted twenty-five thousand men to 
be emploj^ed in America. As it was difficult to obtain enlist- 
ments in Great Britain, Hanoverian troops were hired to 
garrison the fortresses in the Mediterranean, in order to set 
free an equivalent number of British soldiers, for service in 
America. This employment of foreign mercenaries was very 
much stigmatized by the Opposition ; but the same policy was 
presently carried much further. In the course of the session, 
treaties were laid before Parliament, by which the Duke of 
Brunswick, and the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel agreed to 
hire out seventeen thousand of their subjects to serve as 
mercenaries in America. The employment of German troops 
had been suggested by Lord Howe, who expressed, in his 
correspondence with the ministry, a great dislike of Irish 
Catholic soldiers, as not at all to be depended on. These 
treaties, after violent debates, were sanctioned by Parlia- 
ment, and the necessary funds were voted. The forces to be 
employed in America were thus raised to upward of forty 
thousand men. 

General Howe, who had now replaced Gage in the com- 
mand of the British army, was well satisfied that Boston was 



376 ''Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

not a point from wliicli military operations could be advan- 
tageously carried on, and, but for the deficiency of shipping, 
would have evacuated that place before the setting in of 
winter. Abundant supplies were sent from England at very 
great expense, but many ships were wrecked, and others 
were captured ; and the British troops felt the want, during 
the winter, of fuel and fresh provisions. Fuel was supplied 
by pulling down houses. To diminish the consumption of 
provisions, numbers of the poorer people were sent out of the 
town. The troops on Bunker Hill remained under canvas 
the whole winter, and suffered severely from the cold. The 
British officers amused themselves as they could. They 
got up balls and a theater. The Old South, the largest 
meeting-house in the town, was turned into a riding- 
school. 

Lord Dunmore, after his departure from Williamsburg, 
being joined by several British armed vessels in the Chesa- 
peake, began to threaten Lower Virginia. The settlers west 
of the Laurel Ridge had met at Pittsburg, had agreed to 
support the American Association, and had chosen delegates 
to the Virginia Convention. Dunmore, however, not without 
hopes of making some impression in that quarter, gave to 
Conolly, formerly his agent in that region, a lieutenant- 
colonel's commission, and sent him to visit Gage at Boston. 
After his return, Conolly proceeded up the Chesapeake, 
landed near its head, and set oft' with several companions on 
his way across the mountains, in hopes, by his personal influ- 
ence with the western settlers, to raise a regiment, and, in 
conjunction with some regulars from Detroit, to operate 
against the back part of Virginia. It was even said to be a 
part of his plan to stimulate the Lidians to hostilities. But 
the whole scheme was cut short by Conolly's arrest at Fred- 
ericton, in Maryland, whence he and his companions were 
sent prisoners to Philadelphia. 

Meanwhile Dunmore landed at Norfolk, and seized and 
carried off" a printing-press, on which he printed a proclama- 
tion, which he dispersed abroad, declaring martial law, calling 
upon all persons able to bear arms, to join him, and offering 
freedom to all slaves and indented servants of rebels, who 
would enlist under his banner. We furnish a copy of this 
infamous Proclamation : — 



" Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 377 

Since the 19tli of May last I have not received a single 
line from any one in administration, though I have written 
volumes to them, in each of which I have prayed to he 
instructed, hut to no puq^ose. I am therefore determined to 
go on, doing the hest of my power for his Majesty's service. 
I have accordingly ordered a regiment, called the Queen's 
own royal regiment, of five hundred men, to he raised immedi- 
ately, consisting of a lieutenant-colonel, commandant, a major, 
and ten companies, each of which is to consist of one captain, 
two lieutenants, one ensign, and fifty privates, with non- 
commissioned oflicers in proportion. You may observe by 
my proclamation, that I offer freedom to the blacks of all rebels, 
that join me, in consequence of which there are between two 
and three hundred already come in, and those I form into 
a corps, as fast as they come in, giving them white officers 
and non-commissioners in proportion — and from these two 
plans, I make no doubt of getting men enough to reduce this 
colony to a proper sense of their duty. My next distress will 
be the want of arms, accoutrements and money, all of which 
you may be able to relieve me from. The latter I am sure 
you can, as there are many merchants here who are ready to 
supply me, on my giving them bills on you, which you will 
have to withdraw, and give your own in their room. I hope 
this mode will be agreeable to you; it is the same that 
General Gage proposed. 

Having drawn together a considerable force, Dunmore 
ascended Elizabeth river to the Great Bridge, the only pass 
by which Norfolk can be approached from the land side ; dis- 
persed some North Carolina militia collected there; made 
several prisoners; and then, descending the river, took pos- 
session of Norfolk. The rise of that town had been very 
rapid. Within a short time past it had become the principal 
shipping port of Virginia. Its population amounted to several 
thousands, among whom were many Scotch traders, not well 
disposed to the American cause. 

Fugitive slaves and others began now to flock to Dun- 
more's standard. A movement was now made in his favor 
on the east shore of Maryland, which it required a thousand 
militia to suppress. The Convention of Virginia, not a little 
alarmed, voted four additional regiments, afterward increased 
32 



378 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

to seven, all of wliich were presently taken into continental 
pay. Among tlie colonels of tlie new regiments, were Mer- 
cer, Stephen, and Muhlenberg, the latter a clergyman, who 
laid aside the surplice to put on a uniform. The Committee 
of Safety were authorized to imprison all persons guilty of 
taking up arms against the colony, and to appropriate the 
produce of their estates to the public service. Woodford, 
with the second Virginia regiment, took possession of the 
causeway leading to the Great Bridge, which was still held 
by Dunmore's troops. An attempt to dislodge the Virginians 
having failed, with loss, Dunmore abandoned the bridge and 
the town, and again embarked. Norfolk was immediately 
occupied by Woodford, who was promptly joined by Howe's 
reo-iment from North Carolina. 

After a descent on the eastern shore of Virginia, to whose 
aid marched two companies of Maryland minute men, 
being reinforced by the arrival of a British frigate, Dunmore 
bombarded Norfolk. A party landed and set it on fire. The 
town was mostly built of wood, and that part of it nearest 
the water was rapidly consumed. The part which escaped, 
was presently burned by the provincials, to prevent it from 
becoming a shelter to the enemy. Thus perished, a prey to 
civil war, the largest and richest of the rising towns of Vir- 
ginia. Dunmore continued, during the whole summer, a 
predatory warfare along the rivers, of which his naval supe- 
riority gave him the command, burning houses and plunder- 
ing plantations, from which he carried off upward of a 
thousand slaves. He was constantly changing his place to 
elude attack ; but watched, pursued, and harassed, he finally 
found it necessary to retire to St. Augustine with his adher- 
ents and his plunder. (1776.) 

The draft of a Declaration, prepared by Jefferson, ?md 
reported by the Committee, was then taken up. Not to 
offend the friends of America in Great Britain, it was agreed 
to strike out several paragraphs especially severe upon the 
British government. An emphatic denunciation of the 
slave trade, and a charge against the king, of having pros- 
tituted his negative for the defeat of all legislative attempts 
to prohibit or restrain " that execrable traffic," was also 



" Sam : " OR, THE History of Mystery. 379 

omitted. It would have been going too far to ask Georgia 
to vote for that clause. Thus amended, the Declaration was 
adopted, and signed by most of the members present. 

The new Provincial Congress of New York, which met a 
few days after, at White Plains, with authority to form a 
government, gave their sanction to the Declaration, which 
thus became the unanimous act of the Thirteen United 
States. It was presently ordered to be engrossed on parch- 
ment, and was subsequently signed by all the delegates then 
present, including several who were not members at the time 
of its adoption. 

The proclamation of Independence was signalized at New 
York, by destroying a picture of the king, which had 
decorated the City Hall. The king's leaden statue, which 
stood in the Bowling G-reen, was also thrown down and run 
into bullets. This feeling of exultation was, however, far 
from unanimous. A large number of the wealthier citizens 
looked on with distrust ; and the Episcopal clergy showed 
their dissatisfaction by shutting up the churches. 

Meanwhile, by reinforcements from Europe, including a 
part of the German mercenaries, to whom were added the 
forces lately employed against Charleston, and some regi- 
ments from Florida and the West Indies, Howe's army, 
encamped on Staten Island, was raised to twenty-four thou- 
sand men. 

The obstructions placed by General Putnam, with vast 
labor and expense, in the Hudson and East Eivers, were not 
found to answer the purpose intended. In spite of the artil- 
lery of Ports Washington and Lee, several British vessels 
ascended the Hudson. An attempt was made to burn them 
with fire ships ; but, having reconnoitered and taken sound- 
ings, they descended again without material injury. 

It was, however, by way of Long Island, that Howe pro- 
posed to approach the city. Washington had expected as 
much; and a corps of the American army, nine thousand 
strong, lay at Brooklyn, opposite New York, behind intrench- 
ments thrown up under the direction of Greene. Between 
this camp and the bay at the southwest corner of Long 
Island, where the British army presently landed, tliere 
stretched a range of thickly-wooded hills, crossed by two 
roads : a third road f .llowed the shore round tho western 



380 " Sam: ^^ or, the History of Mystery. 

base of these hills; a fourth, penetrating inland, turned 
them on the east. Intrenchments had been thrown up to 
guard the passes over these hills and around their western 
base, and troops had been detailed for that service. A severe 
attack of sickness had obliged Greene to give up the com- 
mand; Putnam, from his recent transfer to it, was yet 
imperfectly acquainted with the situation of the works and 
passes in front of the camp ; and in the confusion and want 
of discipline which prevailed, the orders to watch and guard 
those passes were imperfectly obeyed. 

Two British columns advancing by night, one by the shore 
road and the other over the hills, captured or evaded the 
patrols, forced the defiles without difficulty, and early the 
next morning came in contact with two American corps, one 
under Sterling, sent forward by Putnam, on news of the 
approach of the British, to guard the shore road, the other 
under Sullivan, who advanced hastily, with such troops as he 
could collect, to prevent the passage over the hills. Mean- 
while, a third British column, led by Clinton, proceeded along 
the eastern road, which had been left unguarded, turned the 
hills, and pushed in between Sullivan's corps and the Ameri- 
can camp. Driven backward and forward between a double 
fire, a few of that corps took advantage of the broken and 
wooded ground to escape ; but the greater part were taken 
prisoners, and Sullivan along with them. 

The corps under Sterling made a steady resistance to the 
troops in their front, and when Clinton threatened to gain 
their rear, by great exertions they got back to the camp, 
not, however, without losing their commander, who was taken 
prisoner while covering the retreat. For this important vic- 
tory, in which he lost less than four hundred men, Howe was 
rewarded by the Order of the Bath. The American loss was 
never very accurately ascertained ; but, beside several hun- 
dreds killed or missing, about a thousand remained prisoners 
in the hands of the enemy. Some five thousand men had 
been engaged in the battle, principally from New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Smallwood's Mary- 
land regiment, forming a part of Sterling's division, behiived 
with great gallantry, and suffered very severely. 

The victorious forces, fifteen thousand strong, encamped 
directly in front of the American lines, which a vigorous 



" Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 381 

assault miglit probably have carried. But, with the caution 
fashionable at that clay in military operations, and not dimin- 
ished by the experiment at Bunker Hill, preparations were 
made for regular approaches. The camp at Brooklyn had 
been re-enforced ; but Washington would not risk the loss of 
so considerable a part of his army ; and, after holdino* a 
council of war, he determined to withdraw the troops. The 
command of the boats was given to Colonel Glover, of 
Massachusetts, and they were manned with the men of his 
regiment, mostly fishermen of Marblehead. M'Dougall, who 
was not without some experience in marine affairs, superin- 
tended the embarkation, and, in the course of the night, 
favored by a thick fog, a masterly retreat was effected across 
the East Eiver. As a consequence of this movement, the 
whole of Long Island fell into the hands of the British. 
Woodhull, late president of the Provincial Congress, employed 
on Long Island, with a small body of militia, in driving off 
cattle, was surprised the day after the battle by a party of 
light horse, under Oliver Delancey, wounded after his cap- 
ture, and treated with such cruel neglect that his wounds 
mortified, and he died in consequence. The Long Island 
Tories, who had experienced considerable harshess, had now 
an opportunity to retort on their opponents. 

Washington left a considerable force in the city, but his 
main body was encamped on Harlem Hights, very strong 
ground toward the northern end of York Island. That all 
things might be ready for instant retreat, the surplus stores 
and bag:o!;a2:e were sent across Harlem Eiver, on the east side 
of which, at Morrisania, Washington's head quarters were 
established. 

It was very desirable, at this moment, to obtain correct 
information of the force and position of the British troops at 
Brooklyn ; and, at Washington's desire, and the request of 
Colonel Knowlton, Nathan Hale, a captain in one of the 
Connecticut regiments, a young man of education and en- 
thusiasm, volunteered on that hazardous service. He crossed 
to Brooklyn, obtained the necessary information, and was 
about to return, when he was arrested on some suspicion, and 
being betrayed by his embarrassment, was carried before 
General Howe, tried and convicted as a spy, and hanged the 
next morning. (1776.) 



382 " Sam : ^^ or, the History of Mystery. 

Wasliington's army, by this time, was greatly reduced. 
The term of service of the militia was fast expiring. The 
whole flying camp soon claimed their discharge ; and no in- 
ducements could procure a moment's delay. Some of the 
New York militia refused to do duty. Howe, they said, 
oifered " peace, liberty, and safety'' — so they understood his 
proclamation — and what more could they ask? The Con- 
tinentals were enlisted only for a year, and their term of 
service was fast drawing to a close ; nor did they always wait 
to complete it, desertions being very numerous. Exclusive 
of Heath's division in the Highlands, and the corps under 
Lee, on the east side of the Hudson, Washington's army did 
exceed four thousand men. The ground which he occupied 
was a level plain between the Hackensack and the Passaic; 
the army had no intrenching tools ; and a British Column, 
led by Cornwallis, was rapidly approaching. 

Obliged to retreat, but anxious not to be cut off from 
Philadelphia, Washington crossed the Passaic to Newark, his 
troops exposed to all the severity of approaching winter, 
without tents, badly supplied with blankets, and very imper- 
fectly clad. The British, well furnished with every neces- 
sary, pressed upon him with a much superior force ; and 
Washington again retired, first across the Karitan to Bruns- 
wick, and thence to Princeton, where a corps was left, under 
Stirling, to check the enemy's advance, while Washington 
continued his retreat to Trenton, where he transported his 
remaining stores and baggage across the Delaware. 

The news of Washington's retreat produced the greatest 
commotion in Philadelphia ; fears on one side, and hopes on 
the other. Putnam had been sent to take the command in 
that city. Mifflin was also there, endeavoring to raise the 
spirits of the people. Some fifteen hundred city militia, sent 
forward through the active agency of MiflSin, joined Wash- 
ington at Trenton, and he advanced again upon Princeton. 
But Cornwallis approached with a superior force, and the 
American army was obliged to cross the Delaware. As the 
rear guard left the Jersey shore, the advance of the British 
came in sight ; indeed, during the whole course of the re- 
treat, the American rear guard, employed in pulling up 
bridges, was constant!}^ within sight and shot of the British 
pioneers sf»nt forward to rebuild them. Washington bad 



"Sam:^^ or, the History of Mystery. 383 

secured all the boats on the Delaware, and he placed his forces 
so as to guard the principal fords. The enemy, finding no 
means to cross, occupied the eastern bank, above and below 
Trenton. 

A body of fifteen hundred Hessians, stationed at Trenton, 
was selected by Washington as the object of attack. On 
the evening of Christmas, with two thousand five hundred 
men and six pieces of artillery, including the New York 
company under Alexander Hamilton, he commenced crossing 
the Delaware about nine miles above Trenton. Two corps 
of militia, one opposite Trenton, the other lower down, at 
Bristol, under G-eneral Cadwallader, were to have crossed at 
the same time ; but the quantity of floating ice made the 
passage impossible. It w^as only with great difficulty, and 
after struggling all night, that Washington's troops got over 
at last. About four o'clock in the morning, in the midst of 
a snow-storm, they commenced their march for Trenton, in 
two columns, one led by Gl-reene, the other by Sullivan, 
Stark's New Hampshire regiment heading Sullivan's advance. 
The two columns took different roads — Sullivan along the 
bank of the river, the other some distance inland. It was 
eight o'clock before they reached the to^Yn ; but the Hessians, 
sleepy with the night's debauch, were completely surprised. 
Some little resistance was made by the guard of the artil- 
lery, but they were soon overpowered, and the pieces taken. 
Washington's artillery was planted to sweep the streets of 
the town. The Hessian commander, while attempting to 
form his troops, was mortally wounded. The light horse and 
a portion of the infantry, who fled on the first alarm, escaped 
to Bordentown, The main body attempted to retreat by the 
Princeton road, but found it already occupied by Colonel 
Hand and his regiment of Pennsylvania riflemen. Thus cut 
off", ignorant of the force opposed to them, and without enthu- 
siasm for the cause, they threw down their arms and surren- 
dered. About a thousand prisoners were taken, and six 
cannon. The Americans had two frozen to death, two killed, 
and a few wounded in assaulting the artillery, among them 
James Monroe, then a lieutenant, afterward President of the 
United States. Had the milita, lower down, been able to 
cross the success might have been still more complete. 



384 " Sam : " or, the History op Mystery. 

Wasliington re-crossed the Delaware with his prisoners, 
who were sent to Philadelphia, and paraded through the 
streets in a sort of triumph. The British, astonished at such 
a stroke from an enemy whom they reckoned already sub- 
dued, broke up their encampments along the Delaware, and 
retired to Princeton. Washington thereupon re-occupied 
Trenton, where he was speedily joined by three thousand six 
hundred Pennsylvania militia, relieved, by the withdrawal of 
the enemy, from their late duty of guarding the Delaware. 
At this moment the term of service of the New England 
regiments expired ; but the persuasions of their officers, and 
a bounty of ten dollars, induced them to remain for six 
weeks longer. 

Alarmed by the surprise at Trenton, and the signs of new 
activity in the American army, Howe detained Cornwallis, 
then just on the point of embarking for England, and sent 
him to take the command at Princeton. Ee-enforcements 
now came up from Brunswick, and Cornwallis advanced in 
force upon Trenton. Washington occupied the high ground 
on the eastern bank of a small river which enters the Dela- 
ware at that town. The bridge and the ford above it were 
guarded by artillery. After a sharp cannonade, the British 
kindled their fires and encamped for the night. (1777.) 

Washington was now in a dangerous predicament. He 
had about five thousand men, half of them militia, but a few 
days in camp. Could such an army stand the attack of Brit- 
ish regulars, equal in numbers, and far superior in discipline 
and equipments? To attempt to cross the Delaware in the 
face of the enemy would be more hazardous than a battle. 
Washington, according to his custom, called a council of war. 
The large force which Cornwallis evidently had with him led 
to the inference that the corps in the rear could not be very 
strong. The bold plan was adopted of gaining that rear, 
beating up the enemy's quarters at Princeton, and, if fortune 
favored, falling on his stores and baggage at Brunswick. In 
execution of this plan, the American baggage was silently 
sent off down the river to Burlington ; and, after replenishing 
the camp fires, and leaving small parties to throw up intreuch- 
ments within hearing of the enemy's sentinels, the army 
inarched off* about midnight, by a circuitous route toward 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 385 

Princeton. Three British regiments had spent the night in 
that town ; and by sunrise, when the Americans entered it, 
two of them were already on their march for Trenton. The 
leading regiment was attacked and broken ; but it presently 
rallied, regained the Trenton road, and continued its march 
to join Lord Cornwallis. General Mercer, who had led this 
attack with a column of militia, was not very well supported ; 
he fell mortally wounded while attempting to bring his men 
up to the charge, and was taken prisoner. The marching 
regiment in the rear, after a sharp action, gave way and fled 
toward Brunswick. The regiment in the town occupied the 
college, and made some show of resistance ; but some pieces 
of artillery being brought to bear upon them, they soon sur- 
rendered. Three hundred prisoners fell into the hands of 
the Americans, besides a severe loss to the enemy in killed 
and wounded. The American loss was about a hundred, 
including several valuable officers. 

When Cornwallis heard the roar of the cannon at Prince- 
ton, he penetrated at once the whole of Washington's plan. 
Alarmed for his magazines at Brunswick, he hastily put his 
troops in motion, and by the time the Americans were ready 
to leave Princeton, he was again close upon them. Again 
Washington was in great danger. His troops were exhausted ; 
all had been one night without sleep, and some of them 
longer ; many had no blankets ; others were barefoot ; all were 
very thinly clad. It was necessary to give over the attack 
upon Brunswick, and to occupy some more defensible ground, 
where the troops could be put under cover. At Morristown, 
on the American right, were the skeletons of three regi- 
ments, detached, as already mentioned, from the northern 
army ; also the troops sent forward by Heath, but stopped 
on the reception of Washington's countermand. Some mili- 
tia had also joined them. The high ground in that vicinity 
offered many strong positions. As Cornwallis would hardly 
venture to cross the Delaware with an enemy in his rear, 
Washington concluded to march for Morristown, where he 
intrenched himself. 

Not anxious to continue this winter campaign, Cornwallis 
retired to New Brunswick. The parties sent out by Wash- 
ington to assail and harass the British quarters, were eagerly 
joined bv the inhabitants, incensed by the plunder and ravage 
33 



386 " Sam : " or, the Histoey of Mystery. 

of the Britisli and Hessians, against whom, even Howe's 
protections liad proved a very uncertain defense. Plunder- 
ing, into which sokliers very easily fall, was by no means 
confined to the British. Washington was again obliged to 
issue stern orders against " the infamous practice of plunder- 
ing the inhabitants, under pretense that they are Tories." 

Another proclamation was presently issued, requiring all 
those who had taken British protections, either to remove 
within the enemy's lines, or else to repair to the nearest 
general officer, give up their protections, and take an oath 
of allegiance to the United States. Objections were made 
to this proclamation, and one of the New Jersey delegates 
in Congress, raised some question about it, on the ground 
that it was an interference with State rights, allegiance 
being due to the State, and not to the confederacy ; but 
Congress sustained Washington in the course he had taken. 

Huts were erected at Morristown, and there the main body 
of the American army remained during the winter. The 
right was at Princeton, under Putnam ; the left in the High- 
lands, under Heath ; cantonments were established at vari- 
ous places along this extended line. Skirmishes occasionally 
took place between advanced parties, but for six months, no 
important movement was made upon either side. Washing- 
ton, busy in organizing the new army, was, in fact, very 
weak. Recruits came in but slowly ; and detachments of 
militia, principally from the eastern States, had to be called 
out for temporary service. These were judiciously posted, 
so as to make the best possible show ; but, for several 
months, there was little more than the shadow of an army. 
The enemy, made cautious by their losses, fortunately were 
ignorant of Washington's real situation. The strong ground 
occupied by the Americans, and the winter, which had now 
fairly set in, seemed to forbid the hope of successful attack. 
In skirmishes, the Americans were generally successful ; the 
British quarters were straitened, their supplies were cut off, 
and they were reduced to great distress for forage and fresh 
provisions. 

The recovery of the Jerseys by the fragments of a 
defeated army, which had seemed just before on the point 
of dissolution, gained Washington a high reputation, not at 
home only, but in Europe also, where the progress of tlie 



" Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 387 

campaign had been watched with great interest,, and where 
the disastrous loss of New York, and the retreat through the 
Jerseys, had given a general impression that the Americans 
would not be able to maintain their Independence. The 
recovery of the Jerseys produced a reaction. The American 
general was extolled as a Fabius, whose prudence availed his 
country not less than his valor. At home, also, these suc- 
cesses had the best effect. The recruiting service, which 
before had been almost at a stand, began now to revive, and 
considerable progress was presently made in organizing the 
new army. 

The extensive powers which Congress had intrusted to 
Washington, were exercised energetically indeed, but with 
the greatest circumspection, and a single eye to the public 
good. The State appointments of officers for the new army, 
too often the result of favoritism, were rectified, so far as 
prudence would justify; and, by commissions in the sixteen 
additional battalions, Washington was enabled to provide for 
such meritorious officers as had been overlooked in the new 
appointments. 

We give here a history of cotemporary events, by a cotem- 
porary, which conveys to us much of the realities of this 
period of trial, which nothing of the diction of the Eclectic 
historians of the events which now followed in such rapid 
succession, will ever be able to impress upon the genuine 
children of " Sam.'' It is a tedious history, compressed in a 
few paragraphs, by one of those truly patriotic souls, which 
were fired by the imminence of the events which they wit- 
nessed. 

THE POLITICAL PART OF THE CHARGE OF HIS HONOR, CHIEF JUS- 
TICE WILLIAM HENRY DRAYTON, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 

At a Court of General Sessions of the Peace, Oyer 
AND Terminer, Assize, and General Goal Delivery, begun 
and holden at Charleston, for the district of Charleston, 
the 2lst October, 1777, before the Hon. WilliAxM Henry 
Drayton, Esq., chief justice, and his Associates, justices of 
said court. 

Human policy at best is but short-sighted ; nor is it to be 
wondered at, that the original formation of the continental 



388 *' Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

army was upon an erroneous principle. The people of America 
are a people of property ; almost every man is a freeholder. 
Their superior rulers thought such men, living- at ease on 
their farms, would not become soldiers, under long enlist- 
ments ; nor, as all that was then aimed at was redress of 
grievances, did they think there would be occasion for their 
military services, but for a few months. Hence the conti- 
nental army was formed upon short enlistments — a policy 
that unexpectedly dragged America back to the door of 
slavery. As the time of enlistments expired the last year, 
the American army decreased in power, till it possessed scarce 
anything but its appellation. And Washington, a name 
which needs no title to adorn it, a freeman above all praise, 
having evacuated Long Island and New York to a far supe- 
rior force, having repeatedly baffled the enemy at the White 
Plains, they, quitting that scene of action, suddenly took Fort 
Washington (Nov. 16), and bending their course to Phila- 
delphia, he, with but a handful of men, boldly threw himself 
in their front, and opposed their progress. With a chosen 
body of veterans, who have no near prospect of discharge, it 
is a difficult operation to make an orderly, leisurely, and 
effectual retreat before a superior enemy ; but with Wash- 
ington's little army, not exceeding four thousand men, raw 
troops, who had but a few weeks to serve, to make such a 
retreat, for eighty miles, and through a populous country, 
without being joined by a single neighbor — a most discour- 
aging circumstance — nothing in the whole science of war 
could be more difficult ; yet it was most completely performed. 
Washington caused the Delaware to bound the enemy's 
advance. He summoned General Lee with the corps under 
his command, to join him. That veteran, disobeying his 
repeated orders, for which I presume rigid inquisition is yet 
to be made, loitering where he should have bounded forward, 
allowed himself to be surprised and made a prisoner 
(Dec. 13), at a distance from his troops. Washington in 
the abyss of distress, seemed to be abandoned by the officer 
next in command — ^by the Americans themselves, who seemed 
appalled by the rapid progress of the enemy. Rape and 
massacre, ruin and devastation indiscriminately overwhelmed 
whigs and tories, and marked the advance of the British 
forces. The enemy being but a day's march from Philadelphia, 



" Sam :" or, the History of Mystery. 389 

tlie Quakers of that city, by a public instrument, dated the 
20tli of December, declared their attachment to the British 
domination — a general defection was feared — the Congress 
removed to Baltimore — American liberty evidently appeared 
as in the last convulsion ! 

Washington was now at the head of about two thousand 
five hundred men ; their time of service was to expire in a 
few days, nor was there any prospect that they could be 
induced to stay longer. This, such as it was, appeared the 
only force that could be opposed to the British, which seemed 
to halt only to give time to the American vigor to dissolve 
of itself, and display us to the world as an inconstant people, 
noisy, void of public virtue, and even shame. But it was in 
this extremity of affairs, when no human resource appeared 
in their favor, that the Almighty chose to manifest his power, 
to show the Americans that he had not forsaken them ; and 
to convince the States that it was by him alone they were to 
be maintained in their Independence, if they deserved to pos- 
sess it. 

Like Henry IV. of France, one of the greatest men who 
ever lived, Washington, laying aside the generalissimo, 
assumed the partisan. He had but a choice of difficulties. 
He was even in a more desperate situation than that in 
which the king of Prussia was before the battle of Torgau ; 
when there was no step which rashness dictated, but prudence 
advised him to attempt. The enemy was now in full posses- 
sion of the Jerseys. A principal body of them were posted 
at Trenton, on the Delaware. Washington occupied the 
opposite bank. His army, our only apparent hope, now 
somewhat short of two thousand five hundred men, was to be 
disbanded in a very few days ; he resolved to lead it to battle 
before that fatal period, and at least afford it an opportunity 
of separating with honor. He prepared to attack the enemy 
at the dawn of day, on the 26th of December. The weather 
was severe. The ice on the river prevented the passage of 
a part even of his small force. But with those (one thousand 
five hundred men) that he transported across the river, through 
a violent storm of snow and hail, he marched against the 
enemy. The unavoidable difficulties in passing the river, 
delayed his arrival at their advanced posts, till eight in the 
mornino'. The conflict was short. About thirtv of the British 



390 *'Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

troops were killed. Six hundred fled. Nine hundred and 
nine ofticers and privates surrendered themselves prisoners, 
with six pieces of brass artillery, and four pair of colors. 

This brilliant success was obtained at a very small price — 
only two officers and one or two privates wounded. In a 
word, the victory in effect re-established the Amei'ican affairs. 
The consent of the victors to continue six weeks longer under 
their leader, and the elevation of the spirits of the people, 
were its immediate consequences — most important acquisitions 
at that crisis. The enemy roused from their inactivity, and 
with the view of allowing Washington as little time as pos- 
sible to reap other advantages, they, in a hurry, collected 
in force and marched against him. He was posted at Tren- 
ton. On the second of January, in the afternoon, the front 
appeared ; they halted, with design to make an attack in the 
morning, and in the meantime a cannonade was begun, and 
continued by both parties till dark. Sanpinck creek, which 
runs through Trenton, parted the two armies. Our forces 
occupied the south bank, and at night fires were lighted on 
both sides. At twelve, Washington having renewed his fires, 
and leaving guards on the passages over the creek, and about 
five hundred men to amuse the enemy, with the remainder 
of his army, about one in the morning, marched to Prince- 
ton to cut oft' a re-inforcement that was advancing. He 
arrived at his destination by sunrise, and dislodged them ; 
they left upward of one hundred men dead on the spot, and 
near three hundred more as prisoners to the victors. 

It was by such decisive conduct that the King of Prussia 
avoided being overwhelmed by a combined attack upon his 
camp at Lignitz, on the morning of the 15th of xVugust, 
1760, by three armies led by Dann, Londohn, and Czer- 
nicheue, who were advancing against him from different 
quarters. In the night the king marched, and in the morn- 
ing, by the time Dann arrived at his empty camp, he had 
defeated Londohn in his advance. So the Roman consul, C. 
Claudius Nero, dreading the junction of Hannibal and his 
brother Asdrubal, who was in full march to him with a 
powerful re-inforcement, left his camp before Hannibal, with 
such an appearance as to persuade him he was present, and 
with the nerves and sinews of his army privately quitting it, 
he rapidly marched almost the whole length of Italy, while 



" Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 391 

Ttome trembled at liis steps, and, joining the other consul, he 
defeated Asdrubal, who, had he with his forces joiiH^l his 
brother, had made them in all probability an over match for 
the Roman. Thus equal geniuses prove their equality by 
wisely adapting their conduct to their circumstances. 

The action at Trenton was as the making of the flo^jd. 
From that period success rolled in upon us with a spring 
tide. That victory gave us an army ; the affair of Princeton 
procured us a force and the re-possession of all the Jerseys 
but Brunswick and Amboy — for the enemy, astonished at 
Washington's vivacity, dreaded the loss of those posts, in 
which they had deposited their stores, and ran back to hide 
themselves behind the works they had thrown up around 
them. Washington pursued, and by the fifth of January 
those forces which, but a few days before, were in full posses- 
sion of the Jerseys, he had closely confined to the environs 
of Brunswick and Amboy. In this situation both armies 
continued until the 13th of June last, when General Howe 
made an attempt to proceed to Philadelphia; but, being 
baffled, he suddenly abandoned Brunswick, (June 22d.) and 
in a day or two after, Amboy, and retired to Staten Island. 

In the meantime General Burgoyne was advancing from 
Canada against Ticonderoga. He appeared before the place 
on the 28th of June — a day glorwm to t}m country — and 
General St. Clair, who commanded in that important post, 
without waiting till the enemy had completed their works, 
or given an assault, to sustain which, without doubt, he had 
been sent there, suddenlv abandoned the fortress and its 
stores to the enemy, (July 6th.; The public have loudly 
condemned this evacuation, and the Congress have ordered 
strict inquiry to be made into the cause of it. 

General Burgoyne having thus easily possessed himself 
of Ticonderoga, immediately began to measure the distance 
to New York. But being destitute of horses for his dragoons, 
wagons for the conveyance of his baggage, and in urgent 
want of provisions, he halted near Saratoga, to give time for 
the operation of the proclamation he had issued (June 23d) 
to assure the inhabitants of security, and to induce them to 
continue at home with their effects. But, regardless of public 
engagements, (August 9th,) he suddenly detached lieutenant 



392 " Sam : '' or, the History or Mystery. 

colonel Baum with fifteen hundred men, and private instruc- 
tions to strip the people of their horses, wagons, and provi- 
sions ; and gave '* stretch '^ to his Indians to scalp those 
whom he had exhorted to " remain quietly at their 

HOUSES !" 

Things now wore a dreadful aspect in that part of America, 
hut General Stark soon changed the countenance of affairs. 
With a body of two thousand men, principally militia, he 
attacked (August 16th) Lieutenant Colonel Baum, at Ben- 
nington, stormed his works, killed about two hundred of his 
men, took six hundred and fifty-six prisoners, together with 
four brass field pieces and a considerable quantity of baggage, 
losing only about thirty men killed and fifty wounded. This 
successful attack at once rescued the country from massacre 
and ruin, and deprived G-eneral Burgoyne of those supplies 
which alone could enable him to advance ; nor was it less 
important in respect to the time at which it was made. For 
at this juncture. Fort Stanwix was hard pressed by General 
St. Ledger, who, having advanced from Lake Ontario, had 
laid sieo-e to it on the 2d of Auo;ust. General Arnold had 
been preparing to march to its relief, and he had now full 
liberty to continue his route. His near approach compelled 
the enemy with precipitation to raise the siege, (August 22,) 
leaving their tents, and a large part of their ammunition, 
stores, provisions and baggage, nor did he lose any time in 
setting out in pursuit of them. 

Such unexpected strokes utterly discouraged General Bur- 
goyne. Our militia began to assemble in considerable 
numbers. He now anxiously cast his eyes behind to Ticon- 
deroga, and wished to trace back his steps ; but, while 
General Gates was advancing against his front, at Stillwater, 
with considerable force, the front of Bennington and Stanwix, 
a part of the American troops had occupied posts in his rear, 
and even penetrated to Ticonderoga. In their advance they 
took two hundred batteaux and two hundred and ninety-three 
prisoners ; and having seized the old French lines near that 
fortress, on the 18th of September they summoned the place 
to surrender. Later advices, which, though not indisputable, 
yet well authenticated, say General Burgoyne is totally 
defeated and taken prisoner, and that Ticonderoga, with all 



'* Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 393 

its stores, is in our possession. Indeed, from the events we 
already know, we have every reason to believe that the Ameri- 
can arms are decisively triumphant in that quarter. 

As to General Howe, at the head of the grand British 
army, even when the campaign was far advanced, he had 
not done anything in aid of his master's promise, in June 
last, to his Parliament, that his forces would '' effectually 
crush '' America in the course of *' the present campaign.'' 
Driven from the Jerseys, and having embarked his troops, on 
the 23d of July, he put to sea from Sandy Hook, with two 
hundred and twenty-six sail, and having entered the Chesa- 
peake, he landed his army (about twelve thousand strong) 
the 30th of August, on Turkey Point, at the head of the 
bay. Skirmishing with the American light troops, he pushed 
on to Brandywine Creek, behind which Washington was 
posted to obstruct his passage. By a double onset, on the 
11th of September, at Chad's Ford and Jones', six miles 
above, when, because of uncertain and contradictory intelli- 
gence, Washington had not made a disposition, adequate to 
the force with which the enemy attacked, they crossed, first 
at Jones' and then at Chad's. The engagement was long 
and obstinate. The highest account does not make our 
whole loss exceed one thousand men and nine field-pieces ; 
the lowest statement of the enemy is not so low as one thou- 
sand killed — a slaughter, from which we may form some 
idea of the proportion of their wounded. Not having made 
good the defense of the Brandywine, the American army fell 
back twenty-six miles, to the Schuylkill ; nor did General 
Howe derive any advantage from the possession of the field 
of battle. This is the fortieth day since the engagement, 
and we have heard from Philadelphia, in less than half the 
time, circumstances furnishing reasonable ground to conclude, 
that for at least three weeks after his victory. General Howe 
made no impression upon the army of the United States ; 
and that he purchased his passage of the Brandywine at no 
small price. He carried Bunker Hill ; but he lost Boston. 
I trust he has passed the Brandywine but to sacrifice his 
army as it were, in presence of our illustrious Congress,^ as 
an atonement for his ravages and conflagrations in America. 

Having thus taken a general and concise view of the pro- 
gress of the war in the north, let us now turn our attention 



394 '' Sam: '' or, the History of Mystery. 

to our situation at home. In respect of our government, it 
is affectionately obeyed. With regard to cannon, arms and 
ammunition, we are in a truly respectable condition. As to 
trade, we are the grand emporium for the continent. Oh ! 
that I could but give as good an account of the puhliG vigor 
of the people. 

Alas ! it seems to have been exported in the same bottoms 
with the growth of their lands. What ? are we sensible that 
we are yet at war with Great Britain ? We proceed as if 
we had totally vanquished the enemy. Are we aware, that 
to continue such a conduct is to allure them to enact in this 
State, that tragedy they performed the last winter in the 
Jerseys? Do we intend to acquire an experimental know- 
ledge of the horrors of war V Do we desire to be driven 
from this beautiful town — to be dispossessed of this valuable 
seat of trade — to see ourselves flying we know not whither — 
our heirs uselessly sacrificed in our sight, and their bodies 
mangled with repeated stabs of bayonets ? Tell me, do you 
mean that your ears shall be pierced with the unavailing 
shrieks of your wives, and the agonizing screams of your 
daughters, under the brutal violence of British or Brunswick 
ruffians? Kouse, rouse yourselves into an activity capable 
of securing you against such horrors. In every quarter the 
enemy are vanquished or battled. They are at a stand. 
Cease, my beloved countrymen, cease, by your languor in 
public defense, and your ardor after private gain, to invite 
them to turn their steps this way and seize your country as 
a rich and easy prey. The States of iVmerica are attacked 
by Britain. They ought to consider themselves as an army 
drawn up to receive the shock of assault, and from the nature 
of their ground, occupying thirteen towns and villages in 
the extent of their line. Common prudence dictates that 
the several corps, in their respective stations, during the 
whole time they are in battalia, should use the utmost vigi- 
lance and diligence in being on their guard, and in adding 
strength to strength for their security. We are in the right 
wiug of the American line, and at a distance from the main 
body — are we doing our duty? No, we have in a manner 
laid up our arms — nay, even prizes are prepared for the 
horse-race ! We can spare no laborers to the public, because 
we are employing them to collect, on all sides, articles of 



" Sam : ^' or, the History of Mystery. 395 

private emolument. We amuse ourselves with enquiries into 
the conduct of those who permitted the loss of Ticonderog-a, 
nor do we appear to have an idea that others will, in their 
turn, scrutinize our conduct at this juncture — a crisis when 
we know that the enemy have collected their force, and are 
actually advanced against the main battle of the Americans ; 
where, if they hnd they can make no impression — and we 
have now a flattering prospect that they will find their eftorts 
abortive — it is but reasonable to imagine they will recoil upon 
upon our post. They will sail faster against, than aid can 
be marched to us. Their arrival will be sudden — shall they 
find us shamefully occupied in the amusements and business of 
peace? Why has the Almighty endowed us with a recollection 
of events, but that we may be enabled to prepare against 
dangers, by avoiding the errors and follies, the negligence 
and supineness by which others have been ruined. If a sense 
of our duty to our country, or of safety to posterity, is too 
weak to rouse us to action, if the noble passions of the mind 
have not force to elevate us to glory — the meaner ones, 
perhaps, may drive us into a state of security. The miser, 
amidst all his anxiety to add to his heap, is yet careful to 
provide a strong box for its safety. Shall we neglect such 
an example of prudence ? Pride raised Cassius' dagger 
against Ctesar, and procured for him the glorious title of the 
last of the Romans. We were the first in America who pub- 
licly pronounced Lord North's famous conciliatory motion 
inadmissible — we liaised the first regular forces upon the 
continent, and for a term of three years — we first declared 
the causes of taking up arms — we originated councils of 
safety — we were among the first who led the way to Inde- 
pendence, by establishing a constitution of government — we 
were the first who made a law authorizing the capture of 
British vessels, without distinction — we alone have defeated a 
British fleet — we alone liave victoriously j^icrced through, and 
reduced a powerful nation of Indians, wlio, urged by Bi'itain, 
had attacked the United States. But such brilliant proceed- 
ings, unless supported with propriety, will cover us ^yith 
infamy. They will appear as the productions of faction, 
folly and temerity, not of patriotism, wisdom and valor. 
What a contrast ! how humiliating the one — how glorious 



396 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

the other ! Will not pride spur us on to add to the catalogue ? 
Will you not strive to rival the vigor of the North? Do 
we admire the great names of antiquity ? Do we wish for 
an opportunity to be equally celebrated by posterity ? 

Then the present — there never was a more inviting or 
certain opportunity of acquiring an immortal name. A 
world to be converted into an Empire, is the work now in 
hand — a work wherein the names of the workmen will be 
engraved in indelible characters. Shall we not exert our- 
selves to be ranked in this most illustrious list ? Nor is it 
so difficult a thing to acquire place in it as may be imagined ; 
it is in every man's power to exert himself with vigor and 
constancy. 

My dear countrymen, trifle not with an opportunity unex- 
ampled, and not to be recalled — it is passing with rapidity. 
Let us put our hands to our breasts, and examine what we 
have done in forwarding this imperial structure. How many 
must say, I have youth, strength, activity, an abundant for- 
tune, learning, sense — or some of these blessings ; but — I 
have shown my attachment to America, only by a moment- 
ary vigor, to mark my inconstancy — scrutinizing the conduct 
of others — good wishes — and inquiring the news of the day. 
Such men must be sensible of a disgraceful inferiority, when 
they hear those American names, which the trumpet of fame 
now sounds through the world — a blast that will reach the 
ears of the latest posterity. 

Surely, such men may have a desire to be relieved from so 
oppressive a sensation? The remedy is within their own 
power ; and if they will use it, while it throws off their dis- 
grace, it will operate for the benefit of their country. Let 
them inquire of the President, what service they can ren- 
der THE STATE ? To a rich planter he would say, if you will 
send twenty, thirty, or forty laborers to the public ft'orks, and 
for whom you shall he ^jaid, you will do an essential service 
in a critical time. To another, if you will diligently over- 
look, and push on the construction of such a battery, or line, 
you will merit the thanks of your fellow-citizens. To a 
third, if instead of hunting, you will ride about your neigh- 
borhood, or a little beyond, and endeavor to instruct those 



•• Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 397 

who are ignorant, of tlie importance of the puhlic contest — 
reclaim the deluded — animate the timid — rouse the lan- 
guid — and raise a spirit of emulation as to who shall exert 
himself most in the cause of freedom and America, you will 
deserve the applause of the continent. How many opportu 
nities are there for a man to distinguish himself, and to he 
beneficial to his country ! 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

The Settlements in the West — Biography of Boone, by Himself — Biogra- 
phy of Simon Kenton. 

Since the peace with the Indians on the western frontier, 
various projects had been started for settlements beyond the 
mountains. In a treaty held at Fort Stanwix, the Six 
Nations, in consideration of the payment of £10,460, had 
ceded to the crown all the country south of the Ohio, as far as 
the Cherokee or Tennessee river. So much of this region as 
lay south of the Great Kanawha was claimed, however, by 
the Cherokees as a part of their hunting-grounds. The 
banks of the Kanawha, or New river, flowing north into the 
Ohio, across the foot of the great central Allegheny ridge, 
already began to be occupied by individual settlers. Appli- 
cation was soon made to the British government, by a company 
— of which Franklin, Sir William Johnson, Walpole, a 
wealthy London banker, and others, were members — for 
that part of this newly-ceded territory north of the Kana- 
wha, and thence to the Upper Ohio. They offered to refund 
the whole amount paid to the Indians, and proposed to estab- 
lish on the ceded lands a new and separate colony. This grant, 
though opposed by Lord Hillsborough, was finally agreed 
to by the ministry; but the increasing troubles between 
the colonies and the mother country prevented its final 
completion. Other grants solicited and ceded north of the 
Ohio were defeated by the same cause. Such was the origin 
of the Walpole or Ohio Company, the Vandalia Company, the 
Indiana Company — founded on a cession said to have been 
made to certain traders at the treaty of Fort Stanwix — and 
other land companies, not without a marked influence on the 
^398) 



" Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 399 

politics of a future period. Even the distant regions on the 
shores of Lake Superior attracted the attention of some 
adventurous speculators, by whom attempts were made to 
work the mines ; but the expenses attendant upon so remote 
an undertaking, caused it to be speedily abandoned. 

The first settlement within the limits of the present State 
of Tennessee was made by emigrants from North Carolina, 
under the leadership of James Eobinson, who settled on the 
Wataga, one of the head streams of the Tennessee river, on 
lands of the Cherokees, from whom, however, these settlers 
presently obtained an eight years' lease. As in the early 
settlements of New England, these emigrants organized 
themselves into a body politic. A code of laws was assented 
to, and signed by each individual of the colony. Others who 
joined them soon extended the settlement down the Valley 
of the Houlston, and, crossing the intervening ridges, occu- 
pied the banks of the Nolichucky and Clinch rivers, while 
others yet passed into Powell's Valley, the south-western 
corner of the present State of Virginia. 

John Finley, an Indian trader, returning to North Caro- 
lina from the still more distant regions beyond the western- 
most mountains, brought back glowing accounts of that fertile 
country. He persuaded Daniel Boone, a native of Maryland, 
and four other settlers on the Yadkin, to go with him to 
explore it. Having reached the head waters of the Ken- 
tucky, these adventurers saw from the hills fertile plains 
stretching toward the Ohio, covered with magnificent forests, 
ranged over by numerous herds of buffalo, and abounding 
with other game. They had several encounters with Indians. 
But we furuish here an account of Boone's own life, taken 
down from his own lips, by a cotemporary : 

ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN DANIEL BOONE. 

Comprising an Account of the Wars with the Indians on the 
Ohio, from 1769 to 1782. 

WRITTEN BY HEMSELF. 

It was on the 1st of May, 1769, that I resigned my 
domestic happiness, and left my family and peaceable habi- 
tation on the Yadkin river, in North Carolina, to wander 
through the wilderness of America, in quest of the country 



400 '* Sam : ^' or, the History of Mystery. 

of Kentucky, in company with John Finley, John Stuart, 
Joseph Holcien, James Monay, and William Cool. 

On the 7th of June, after travelling in a western direction, 
we found ourselves on Ked river, where John Finley had for- 
merly been trading with the Indians, and from the top of an 
eminence saw with pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucky. 
For some time we had experienced the most uncomfortable 
weather. We now encamped, made a shelter to defend us 
from the inclement season, and began to hunt, and reconnoiter 
the country. We found abundance of wild beasts in this vast 
forest. The buffaloes were more numerous than cattle in 
the settlements, browsing on the leaves of the cane, or 
cropping the herbage on these extensive plains. We saw 
hundreds in a drove, and the numbers about the salt-springs 
were amazing. In this forest, the habitation of beasts of 
every American kind, we hunted with great success until 
December. 

On the 2 2d of December, John Stuart and I had a pleas- 
ing ramble ; but fortune changed the day at the close of it. 
We passed through a great forest, in which stood myriads of 
trees, some gay with blossoms, others rich with fruits. 
Nature was here a series of wonders and a fund of delight. 
Here she displayed her ingenuity and industry in a variety 
of flowers and fruits, beautifully colored, elegantly shaped, 
and charmingly flavored ; and we were favored with number- 
less animals presenting themselves perpetually to our view. 
In the decline of the day, near Kentucky river, as we 
ascended the brow of a small hill, a number of Indians 
rushed out of a canebreak and made us prisoners. The 
Indians plundered us, and kept us in confinement seven days. 
During this time, we discovered no uneasiness or desire to 
escape, which made them less suspicious ; but in the dead of 
night, as we lay by a large fire in a thick canebrake, when 
sleep had locked up their senses, my situation not disposing 
me to rest, I gently awoke my companion. We seized this 
favorable opportunity and departed, directing our course 
toward the old camp, but found it plundered, and our com- 
pany destroyed cr dispersed. 

About this time, my brother with another adventurer, who 
came to explore the country shortly after us, were wandering 
through the forest, and accidentally came upon our camp. 



<'Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 401 

Notwithstanding our unfortunate circumstances, and our dan- 
gerous situation, surrounded with hostile savages, our meeting 
fortunately in the wilderness gave us the most sensible 
satisfaction. 

Soon after this my companion in captivity, John Stuart, 
was killed by the savages, and the man who came with mv 
brother, while on a private excursion was soon after attacked 
and killed by the wolves. We were now in a dangerous 
and helpless situation, exposed daily to perils and death, 
among savages and wild beasts, not a white man in the 
country but ourselves. 

Although many hundred miles from our families, in the 
howling wilderness, we did not continue in a state of indolence, 
but hunted every day, and prepared a little cottage to defend 
us from the winter. On the 1st of May, 1770, my brother 
returned home for a new recruit of horses and ammunition, 
leaving me alone, without bread, salt, or sugar, or even a 
horse or a dog. I passed a few days uncomfortably. The 
idea of a beloved wife and family, and their anxiety on my 
account, Avould have disposed me to melancholy if I had fur - 
ther indulo'ed the thouo-ht. 

One day I undertook a tour through the country, when the 
diversities and beauties of nature I met with in this charming 
.season expelled every gloomy thought. Just at the close of 
the day, the gentle gales ceased ; a profound calm ensued ; not 
a breath shook the tremulous leaf. I had gained the summit 
of a commanding ridge, and looking around with astonishing 
delight, beheld the ample plains and beauteous tracts below. 
On one hand, I surveyed the famous Ohio rolling in silent 
dignity, and marking the western boundary of Kentucky 
with inconceivable grandeur. At a vast distance, I beheld 
the mountains lift their venerable brows and penetrate ihe 
clouds. All things were still. I kindled a fire near a fountain 
of sweet water, and feasted on the loin of a buck which I had 
killed a few hours before. The shades of night soon over- 
spread the hemisphere, and the earth seemed to gasp after 
the hovering moisture. At a distance I frequently lieard the 
hideous yells of savages. My excursion had fatigued my 
body and amused my mind. I laid me down to sleep, and 
awoke not until the sun had chased away the night. I con- 
t nued this tour, and in a few davs explored a considerable 
34 



402 '' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

part of the country, each day equally pleasing as the first ; 
after which I returned to my old camp, which had not heen 
disturbed in my absence. I could not confine my lodging to 
it, but often reposed in thick canebrakes to avoid the savages, 
who I believe frequently visited my camp, but, fortunately 
for me, in my absence. No populous city, with all its varie- 
ties of commerce and stately structures, could afford such 
pleasure to my mind, as the beauties of nature I found in 
this country. 

Until the 27 th of July, I spent my time in an uninter- 
rupted scene of sylvan pleasures, when my brother, to my 
great felicity, met me according to appointment, at our old 
camp. Soon after, we left the place, and proceeded to Cum- 
berland river, reconnoitering that part of the country, and 
giving names to the different rivers. 

In March, 1771, I returned home to my family, being 
determined to bring them as soon as possible, at the risk of 
my life and fortune, to reside in Kentucky, which I esteemed 
a second Paradise. 

On my return, I found my family in happy circumstances. 
I sold my farm on the Yadkin, and what goods we could not 
carry with us, and on the 25th of September, 1773, we took 
leave of our friends and proceeded on our journey to Ken- 
tucky, in company with five more families, and forty men 
that joined us in Powell's Valley, which is one hundred and 
fifty miles from the new settled parts of Kentucky. But 
this promising beginning was soon overcast with a cloud of 
adversity. 

On the 10th of October the rear of our company was 
attacked by a party of Indians, who killed six, and wounded 
one man. Of these my oldest son was one that fell in the 
action. Though we repulsed the enemy, yet this unhappy 
affair scattered our cattle and brought us into extreme diffi- 
culty. We returned forty miles, to the settlement on Clench 
river. We had passed over two mountains, Powell and Wal- 
den's, and were approaching Cumberland mountain, when this 
adverse fortune overtook us. These mountains are in the 
wilderness, in passing from the old settlement in Virginia to 
Kentucky ; they range in a southwest and northeast direc- 
tion ; are of great length and breadth, and not far distant 
from each other. Over them Nature has formed passes less 



" Sam :'^ or, the History of Mystery. 403 

difficult than might he expected from the view of such huge 
piles. The aspect of these cliffs is so wild and horrid, that 
it is impossible to behold them without horror. 

Until the 6th of June, 1774, I remained with my family 
on the Clench, when myself and another person were solicited 
by Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, to conduct a number of 
surveyors to the falls of Ohio. This was a tour of eio-ht 
hundred miles, and took sixty-two days. 

On my return, G-ov. Dunmore gave me the command of 
three garrisons during the campaign against the Shawnese. 
In March, 1765, at the solicitation of a number of gentle- 
men of North Carolina, I attended their treaty at Watao-a 
with the Cherokee Indians, to purchase the lands on the 
south side of Kentucky river. After this, I undertook to 
mark out a road in the best passage from the settlements 
through the wilderness to Kentucky. 

Having collected a number of enterprising men, well 
armed, I soon began this work. We proceeded until we came 
within fifteen miles of where Boonsborough now stands, where 
the Indians attacked us, and killed two, and wounded two 
more of our party. This was on the 22d of March, 1775. 
Two days after we were again attacked by them, when we 
had two more killed, and three wounded. After this, w^e 
proceeded on to Kentucky river without opposition. 

On the 1st of April, we began to erect the fort of Boons- 
borough, at a salt lick sixty yards from the river, on the 
south side. On the 4th the Indians killed one of our men. 
On the 14th of June, having completed the fort, I returned 
to my family on the Clench, and whom I soon afterward 
removed to the fort. My wife and daughter were supposed 
to be the first white women that ever stood on the banks of 
Kentucky river. 

On the 24th of December, the Indians killed one of our 
men, and w^ounded another; and on the 15th of July, 1776, 
they took my daughter prisoner. I immediately pursued 
them with eight men, and on the 16th overtook and engaged 
them. I killed two of them and recovered my daughter. 

The Indians, having divided themselves into several par- 
ties, attacked in one day all our infant settlements and forts, 
doing a great deal of damage. The husbandmen were 
ambushed and unexpectedly attacked while toiling in the 



404 ''Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

field. They continued tliis kind of warfare until tlie loth 
of April, 1777, when nearly one hundred of them attacked 
the village of Boonsborough, and killed a number of its 
inhabitants. On the 16th Colonel Logan's fort was attacked 
by two hundred Indians. There were only thirteen men in 
the fort, of whom the enemy killed two, and wounded one. 

On the 20th of xiugust, Colonel Bowman arrived with one 
hundred men from Virginia, with which additional force we 
had almost daily skirmishes with the Indians, who began now 
to learn the superiority of the " long knife," as they termed 
the Virginians ; being out-generalled in almost every action. 
Otir aflairs began now to wear a better aspect ; the Indians 
no longer daring to face us in open field, but sought private 
opportunities to destroy us. 

On the 7th of February, 1778, while on a hunting excur- 
sion alone, I met a party of one hundred and two Indians, 
and two Frenchmen, marching to attack Boonsborough. They 
pursued and took me prisoner, and conveyed me to Old Chili- 
cothe, the principal Indian town on Little Miami, where we 
arrived on the 18th of February, after an uncomfortable 
journey. On the 10th of March I was conducted to Detroit, 
and while there, was treated with great humanity by Gov. 
Hamilton, the British commmander at that port, and 
Intendant for Indian aflairs. 

The Indians had such an affection for me, that they refused 
one hundred pounds sterling, oftered them by the Governor, 
if they would consent to leave me with him, that he might 
be enabled to liberate me on my parole. Several English 
gentlemen then at Detroit, sensible of my adverse fortune, 
and touched with sympathy, generously oftered to supply my 
wants, which I declined with many thanks, adding that I 
never expected it would be in my power to recompense such 
unmerited generosity. 

On the 10th of April, the Indians returned with me to 
Old Chilicothe, where we arrived on the 25th. This was a 
long and fatiguing march, although through an exceeding 
fertile country, remarkable for springs and streams of water. 
At Chilicothe I spent my time as comfortably as I could 
expect ; was adopted, according to their custom, into a family 
where I became a son, and had a great share^in the affection of 
my new parents, brothers, sisters, and friends. I was exceed- 



" Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 405 

iiiglj familiar and friendly with them, always appearing as 
cheerful and contented as possible, and they put great confi- 
dence in me. I often went a hunting with them, and fre- 
quently gained the applause for my activity at our shootino* 
matches. I was careful not to exceed many of them in shoot- 
ing, for no people are more envious than they in this sport. I 
could observe in their countenances and gestures the great- 
est expressions of joy when they exceeded me, and when the 
reverse happened, of envy. The Shawanese king took great 
notice of me, and treated me with profound respect, and 
entire friendship, often intrusting me to hunt at my liberty. 
I frequently returned with the spoils of the woods, and as 
often presented some of what I had taken to him, expressive 
of duty to my sovereign. My food and lodging were in com- 
mon with them : not so good, indeed, as I could desire, but 
necessity made everything acceptable. 

I now began to meditate an escape, and carefully avoided 
giving suspicion. I continued at Chilicothe until the 1st 
day of June, when I was taken to the salt springs on Sciotha, 
and there employed ten days in the manufacturing of salt. 
During this time, I hunted with my Indian masters, and 
found the land, for a great extent about this river, to exceed 
the soil of Kentucky. 

On my return to Chilicothe, one hundred and fifty of the 
choicest Indian warriors were ready to march against Boons- 
borough. They were painted and armed in a frightful man- 
ner. This alarmed me, and I determined to escape. 

On the 26th of June, before sunrise, I went off secretly, 
and reached Boonsborough on the 30th, a journey of one 
hundred and sixty miles, during which I had only one meal. 
I found our fortress in a bad state, but we immediately 
repaired our flanks, gates, posterns, and formed double bas- 
tions, which we completed in ten days. One of my fellow- 
prisoners escaped after me, and brought advice, that on 
account of my flight, the Indians had put off their expedition 
for three weeks. 

About the 1st of August, I set out with nineteen men, to 
surprise Point Creek-town, on Sciotha, within four miles of 
which we fell in with forty Indians going against Boons- 
borough. We attacked them, and they soon gave way, with- 
out any loss on our part. 



406 *' Sam: '' or, the History of Mystery. 

The enemy had one killed and two wounded. We took 
three horses and all their baggage. The Indians having 
evacuated their town, and gone altogether against Boons- 
borough, we returned, passed them on the 6ih, and on the 
7th, arrived safe at Boonshorough. 

On the 9th, the Indian army, consisting of four hundred 
and forty-four men, under the command of Captain Duquesne, 
and eleven other Frenchmen, and their chiefs, arrived and 
summoned the fort to surrender. I requested two days' 
consideration, which was granted. During this we brought 
in through the posterns all the horses and other cattle we 
could collect. 

On the 9th, in the evening, I informed their commander, 
that we were determined to defend the fort while a man was 
living. They then proposed a treaty : they would withdraw. 
The treaty was held within sixty yards of the fort, as we 
suspected the savages. The articles were agreed to and 
signed, when the Indians told us, as it was their custom for 
two Indians to shake hands with every white man in the 
treaty, as an evidence of friendship. We agreed to this 
also. They immediately grapj)led us to take us prisoners, 
but we cleared ourselves of them, though surrounded by 
hundreds, antl gained the fort safe, except one man, who was 
wounded by a heavy fire from the enemy. 

The savages now began to undermine the fort, beginning 
at the watermark of Kentucky river, which is sixty yards 
from the fort ; this we discovered by the water being made 
muddy by the clay. We countermined them by cutting a 
trench across their subterraneous passage. The enemy dis- 
covering this by the clay we threw out of the fort, desisted. 
On the 20th of August, they raised the siege, during which 
we had two men killed, and four wounded. We lost a num- 
ber of cattle. The loss of the enemy was thirty-seven 
killed, and a much larger number wounded. We picked up 
one hundred and twenty-five pounds of their bullets, beside 
what stuck in the logs of the fort. 

In July, 1779, during my absence, Colonel Bowman, with 
one hundred and sixty men, went against the Shawanese of 
Old Chilicothe. He arrived undiscovered. A battle ensued, 
which lasted until ten in the morning, when Coloncd Bow- 
man retreated thirtv miles. The Indians collected all their 



Sam : " OR, THE History of Mystery. 407 



strength and pursued him, when another engagement ensued 
for two hours, not to Colonel Bowman^s advantage. Colonel 
Harrod proposed to mount a number of horses, and break 
the enemy's line, wlio at this time fought with remarkable 
fury. This desperate measure had a happy effect, and the 
savages fled on all sides. In these two engagements we had 
nine men killed and one wounded. Enemy's loss uncertain. 
Only two scalps were taken. 

June 23d, 1780, five hundred Indians and Canadians under 
Colonel Bird, attacked Riddle and ]Martain's station, and the 
forks of Licking River, with six pieces of artillery. They 
took all the inhabitants captive, and killed one man and two 
women, loading the others with the heavy baggage, and such 
as failed in the journey were tomahawked. 

The hostile disposition of the savages caused General 
Clarke, the commandant at the falls of Ohio, to march with 
his reoiment and the armed force of the countrv ao-ainst 
Peccaway, the principal town of the Shawanese, on a branch 
the Great Miami, which he attacked with great success, took 
seventy scalps, and reduced the town to ashes, with the loss 
of seventeen men. 

About this time, I returned to Kentucky with my family; 
for during my captivity, my wife, thinking me killed by the 
Indians, had transported my family and goods, on horses, 
throuo^'h the wilderness, amidst p'reat dano-ers, to her father's 
house in North Carolina. 

On the 6th of October, 1780, soon after my settling again 
at Boone sborough, I went with my brother to the Blue Licks, 
and on our return, he was shot by a party of Indians, who 
followed me by the scent of a dog, which I shot and escaped. 
The severity of the winter caused great distress in Kentucky, 
the enemy, during the summer, having destroyed most of 
the corn. The inhabitants lived chiefly on buftalo's flesh. 

In the spring of 1702, the Indians harassed us. In May, 
they ravished, killed, and scalped a woman and her two 
daughters, near Ashton's station, and took a negro prisoner. 
Captain Ashton pursued them with twenty-flve men, and in 
an engagement which lastctl two hours, his party were 
obliged to retreat, having eight killed, and four mortally 
wounded. Their brave commander fell in the action. 

On August 18th, two boys were carried off^ from Major 



408 "Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

Hoy's station. Captain Holder pursued the enemy with 
seventeen men, who were also defeated, with the loss of 
seven killed and two wounded. Our affairs became more 
and more alarming. The savages infested the country, and 
destroyed the whites as opportunity presented. In a field 
near Lexington, an Indian shot a man, and running to 
scalp him, was himself shot from the fort, and fell dead 
upon the ground. All the Indian nations were now united 
against us. 

On August 15th, five hundred Indians and Canadians came 
against Briat's station, five miles from Lexington. They 
assaulted the fort, and killed all the cattle round it ; but 
being repulsed, they retired the third day, having about 
eighty killed ; their wounded uncertain. The garrison had 
four killed, and nine w^ounded. 

On August 10th, Colonels Todd and Trigg, Major Harland 
and myself, speedily collected one hundred and seventy-six 
men, well-armed, and pursued the savages. They had 
marched beyond the Blue Licks, to a remarkable bend of the 
main fork of the Licking Eiver, about forty-three miles 
from Lexington, where we overtook them on the 19th. 
The savages observing us, gave way, and we, ignorant of 
their numbers, passed the river. When they saw our pro- 
ceedings, having greatly the advantage in situation, they 
formed their line of battle from one end of the Licking to 
the other, about a mile from the Blue Licks. The engage- 
ment was close and warm for about fifteen minutes, when we, 
being overpowered by numbers, were obliged to retreat, with 
a loss of sixty-seven men, seven of whom were taken prison- 
ers. The brave and much lamented colonels, Todd and 
Trigg, Major Harland, and my second son, were among the 
dead. We were afterward informed that the Indians, on 
numbering their dead, finding that they had four more 
killed than we, four of our people they had taken, were 
given up to their young warriors, to be put to death after 
their barbarous manner. 

On our retreat, we were met by Colonel Logan, who was 
hastening to join us with a number of well-armed men. 
This powerful assistance we wanted on the day of the battle. 
The enemy said, one more fire from us would have made 
them give way. 



•'Sam:" ob, the History of Mystery. 409 

I can not reflect upon this dreadful scene, without great 
sorrow. A zeal for the defense of their country, led these 
heroes to the scene of action, though with few men, to attack 
a powerful army of experienced warriors. When we o-ave 
way, they pursued us with the utmost eagerness, and in 
every quarter spread destruction. The river was difficult to 
cross, and many were killed in the fight, some just enterino- 
the river, some in the water, others after crossing, in ascend- 
ing the cliff's. Some escaped on horseback, a few on foot ; 
and being dispersed everywhere, in a few hours brought the 
melancholy news of this unfortunate battle to Lexington. 
Many widows were now made. The reader may guess what 
sorrow filled the hearts of the inhabitants, exceeding any 
thing that I am able to describe. Being reinforced, we 
returned to bury the dead, and found their bodies strewed 
everywhere, cut and mangled in a dreadful manner. This 
mournful scene exhibited a horror almost unparalleled ; some 
torn and eaten by wild beasts ; those in the river by fishes ; 
all in such a putrid condition that one could not be distin- 
guished from another. 

When General Clarke, at the falls of the Ohio, heard of our 
disaster, he ordered an expedition to pursue the savages. 
AVe overtook them within two miles of their town, and we 
should have obtained a great victory, had not some of them 
met us when about two hundred poles from their camp. The 
savages fled in the utmost disorder, and evacuated all their 
towns. We burned to ashes Old Chilicothe, Peccaway, New 
Chilicothe, and Willstown ; entirely destroyed their corn and 
other fruits, and spread desolation through their country. 
We took seven prisoners and fifteen scalps, and lost only 
four men, two of whom were accidentally killed by ourselves. 
This campaign damped the enemy, yet they made secret 
incursions. 

In October, a party attacked Crab Orchard, and one of 
them, being a good way before the others, boldly entered a 
house, in which were only a woman and her children, and a 
negro man. The savage used no violence, but attempted to 
carry off the negro, who happily proved too strong for him, 
and'^threw him on the ground, and in ihe struggle, the woman 
cut off his head with an ax, while her little daughter shut 
the door. The savages instantly came up, and applied their 
35 



410 *' Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 

tomahawks to the door, vvlien the mother putting an old 
rusty gun barrel through the crevice, the savages immedi- 
ately went off. 

From that time till the happy return of peace between 
the United States and Great Britain, the Indians did us no 
mischief. Soon after this, the Indians desired peace. 

Two darling sons and a brother, I have lost by savage 
liands, which have also taken from me forty valuable horses, 
and abundance of cattle. Many dark and sleepless nights 
have I spent, separated from the cheerful society of men, 
scorched by the summer's sun, and pinched by the winter's 
cold, an instrument ordained to settle the wilderness. 

Daniel Boone. 

Fayette County, Kentucky. 

We will, while upon this subject, furnish also a biographi- 
cal sketch of Simon Kenton, the heroic cotcmporary of Daniel 
Boone, and which is attributed to his own rude pen. Taking 
the two sketches together, they comprise a graphic sum- 
mary of Indian history in the West, at this period of the 
life of "Sam." 

Simon Kenton was a Virginian by birth, and emigrated to 
the wilds of the West in the year 1771. He was born, 
(according to a manuscript which he dictated to a gentleman 
of Kentucky, several years since,) in Fauquier county, on 
the 15th of May, 1755, of poor parents. His early life was 
passed principally on a farm. At the age of sixteen, having 
a quarrel with a rival in a love-affair, he loft his antagonist 
upon the ground for dead, and made quick steps for the wil- 
derness. In the course of a few days, wandering to and fro, 
he arrived at a small settlement on Cheat Creek, one of the 
forks of the Monongahela, where he called himself Butler. 
Here, according to Mr. IM'Clung, whose interesting account 
of Kenton, in the " Sketches of AVestern Adventure," we are 
following, he attached himself to a small company headed 
by John Mahon and Jacob Greathouse, which was about start- 
ing farther west, on an exploring expedition. He was soon 
induced, however, by a young adventurer of the name of 
Yager, who had been taken by the western Indians when a 
child, and spent many years among them, to detach himself 
from the company, and go with him to a land which the 



*' Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 411 

Indians called Kan-tuc-kee, and which he represented as 
being a perfect eljsium. Accompanied by another youno- 
man, named Strader, they set otF for the backwoals paradise 
in high spirits : Kenton not doubting that he should find a 
country flowing with milk and honey, where he would have 
little to do but to eat, drink, and be merry. Such, however, 
was not his luck. They continued wandering through the 
wilderness for some weeks, without finding the " promised 
land,'^ and then retraced their steps, and successively ex- 
plored the land about Salt-Lick, Little and Big Sandy, and 
Guyandotte. At length, being totally wearied out, they 
turned their attention entirely to hunting and trapping, and 
thus spent nearly two years. Being discovered by the Indians, 
and losing one of his companions, (Strader,) Kenton was com- 
pelled to abandon his trapping- waters, and liunting-grounds. 
After divers hardships, he succeeded in reaching the mouth 
of the Little Kenhawa, with his remaining companion, where 
he found and attached himself to another exploring party. 
This, however, was attacked by the Indians, soon after com- 
mencing the descent of the Ohio, compelled to abandon its 
canoes, and strike diagonally through the woods for Green- 
briar county. Its members suffered much in accomplishing 
this journey, from fatigue, sickness and famine; and ou 
reaching the settlements, separated. 

Kenton's rival of the love-affair had long since recovered 
from the castigation which he had given him. But of this, 
the young hero had not heard. He therefore did not think 
proper to venture home ; but, instead, built a canoe on the 
Monongahela, and once more sought the moutli of the Great 
Kenhawa, where he hunted till the spring of 1774. This 
year, he descended the Ohio as far as the mouth of Big Bone 
creek, and was engaged in various explorations till 1778, 
when he joined Daniel Boone in his expedition against the 
Indian town on Paint creek. Immediately on his return 
from this, he was despatched by Colonel Bowman, with two 
companions, to make observations upon the Indian towns on 
Little Miami, against which the colonel meditated an expedi- 
tion. He reached the towns in safety, and made the mces- 
sary surveys without being observed by the Indians ; and the 
expedition might have terminated much to his credit, and 
been verv useful to the settlers in Kentucky, had he nnt, 



4:12 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

before leaving" the towns, stolen a number of the Indians' 
horses. The animals were missed early on the following 
morning, the trail of the marauders was discovered, and 
pursuit instantly commenced. Kenton and his companions 
soon heard cries in their rear, knew that they had been dis- 
covered, and saw the necessity of riding for their lives. 
They therefore dashed through the woods at a furious rate, 
with the hue and cry after them, until their course was 
suddenly interrupted by an impenetrable swamp. Here they 
from necessity, paused for a few^ moments, and listened atten- 
tively. Hearing no sounds of pursuit, they resumed their 
course — and skirting the swamp for some distance, in the 
vain hope of crossing it, they dashed oft' in a straight line 
for the Ohio. They continued their furious speed for forty- 
eight hours, halting but once or twice for a few minutes to 
take some refreshment, and reached the Ohio in safety. 
The river was high and rough, and they found it impossible 
to urge the jaded horses over. Various eff'orts were made, 
but all failed. Kenton was never remarkable for prudence ; 
and on this occasion, his better reason seems to have deserted 
him entirely. By abandoning the animals, he might yet 
have escaped, though several hours had been lost in en- 
deavoring to get them over. But this he could not make 
up his mind to do. He therefore called a council, when it 
was determined, as they felt satisfted they must be some 
twelve hours in advance of their pursuers, that they should 
conceal their horses in a neighboring ravine, and themselves 
take stations in an adjoining wood, in the hope that by sun- 
set, the high wind would abate, and the state of the river 
be such as to permit their crossing with the booty. At the 
hour waited for, however, the wind was higher, and the 
water rougher than ever. Still, as if completely infatuated, 
they remained in their dangerous position through the night. 
The next morning was mild, the Indians had not yet been 
heard in pursuit, and Kenton again urged the horses over. 
But, recollecting the difficulties of the preceding day, the 
afi'righted animals could not now be induced to enter the 
water at all. Each of the three men therefore mounted a 
horse, abandoning the rest, (they had stolen quite a drove,) 
and started down the river, with the intention of keeping 
the Ohio and Indiana side till they should arrive opposite 



" Sam : ' or, the History op Mystery. 413 

Louisville. But they were slow in making even this move- 
ment ; and they had not ridden over a hundred yards when 
they heard a loud halloo, proceeding apparently from the 
spot which they had just left. They were soon surrounded 
by the pursuers. One of Kenton's companions effected his 

escape, the other was killed. Kenton was made prisoner 

" falling a victim," says Mr. M'Clung, ''to his excessive love 
of horseflesh.'^ 

After the Indians had scalped his dead companion, and 
kicked and cufied Kenton to their hearts' content, they com- 
pelled him to lie down upon his hack, and stretch out his 
arms to their full length. They then passed a stout stick 
at right angles across his breast, to each extremity of which, 
his wrists were fastened by thongs of buffalo-hide. Stakes 
were next driven into the earth near his feet, to which they 
were fastened in like manner. A halter was then tied round 
his neck, and fastened to a sapling which grew near. And 
finally, a strong rope was passed under his body, and wound 
several times round his arms at the elbows — thus lashino' 
them to the stick which lay across his breast, and to wliich 
his wrists were fastened, in a manner peculiarly painful.* 
He could move neither feet, arms, nor head ; and was kept 
in this position till the next morning. The Indians then 
wishing to commence their re turn -journey, unpinioned Ken- 
ton, and lashed him by the feet, to a wild, unbroken colt, (one 
of the animals he had stolen from them,) with his hands tied 
behind him. 

In this manner he was driven into a captivity, as cruel, sin- 
gular, and remarkable in other respects, as any in the whole 
history of Indian warfare upon this continent. " A fatalist," 
says the author of the Sketches of Western Adventure, " would 
recognise the hand of destiny in every stage of its progress. 
In the infatuation with which Kenton refused to adopt pro])er 
measures for his safety, while such were practicable ; in the 
persevering obstinacy with which he remained on the Ohio 
shore until flight became useless ; and afterward, in that 
remarkable succession of accidents, by which, without the 
least exertion on his part, he was so often at one hour tan- 
talized with a prospect of safety, and the next plunged into 
the deepest despair. He was eight times exposed to the 
gauntlet — three times tied to the stake — and as often 



414 " Sam: '' or, the History of Mystery. 

thought himself upon the eve of a terrible death. All the 
sentences passed upon him, whether of mercy or condemna- 
tion, seem to have been pronounced in one council only to be 
reversed in another. Every friend that Providence raised up 
in his favor, was immediately followed by some enemy, who 
unexpectedly interposed, and turned his short glimpse of 
sunshine into deeper darkness than ever. For three weeks 
he was constantly see-sawing between life and death ; and 
during the whole time, he was perfectly passive. No wisdom, 
or foresight, or exertion, could have saved him. Fortune 
fouffht his battle from first to last, and seemed determined 
to permit nothing else to interfere. 

He was eventually liberated from the Indians, when about 
to be bound to the stake for the fourth time and burnt, by an 
Indian agent of the name of Drewyer, who was anxious to 
obtain intelligence for the British commander at Detroit, of 
the strength and condition of the settlements in Kentucky. 
He got nothing important out of Kenton; but the three 
weeks, Football of Fortune was sent to Detroit, from which 
place he effected his escape in about eight months, and 
returned to Kentucky. Fearless and active, he soon embarked 
in new enterprises ; and was with George Eogers Clarke, in 
his celebrated expedition against Vincennes and Kaskaskia ; 
with Edwards, in his abortive expedition to the Indian towns 
in 1785 — and with Wayne, in his decisive campaign of 1794. 

Simon Kenton, throughout the struggles of the pioneers, 
had the reputation of being a valuable scout, a hardy woods- 
man, and a brave Indian fighter ; but in reviemng his event- 
ful career, he appears to have greatly lacked discretion, and 
to have evinced frequently a want of energy. In his after 
life he was much respected, and he continued to the last fond 
of regaling listeners with stories of the early times. A 
friend of ours, who about three years ago made a visit to the 
abode of the venerable patriarch, describes in the following 
terms his appearance at that time: '' Kenton's form, even 
under the weight of seventy-nine years, is striking, and 
must have been a model of manly strength and agility. His 
eye is blue, mild, and yet penetrating in its glance. The 
forehead projects very much at the eyebrows — which are well 
defined — and then recedes, and is neither very high nor very 
broad. His hair, which in active life was light, is now quite 



'' Sam: '' or, the History of Mystery. 415 

gray ; his nose is straight ; and his mouth, before he lost his 
teeth, must have been expressive and handsome. I observed 
that he had yet one tooth — which, in connection with his 
character and manner of conversation, was continually remind- 
ing me of Leatherstocking. The whole face is remarkably 
expressive, not of turbulence or excitement, but rather of 
rumination and self-possession. Simplicity, frankness, honesty, 
and a strict regard to truth, appeared to be the prominent 
traits of his character. In giving an answer to a question 
which my friend asked him, I was particularly struck with 
his truthfulness and simplicity. The question was, whether 
the account of his life, given in the Sketches of Western 
Adventure^ was true or not. " Well, I'll tell you," said he ; 
*' not true. The book says that wdien Blacktish, the Injun 
warrior, asked me, when they had taken me prisoner, if 
Colonel Boone sent me to steal their horses, I said ' no, sir !' 
Here he looked indignant and rose from his chair. " I tell 
you I never said ' sir P to an Injun in my life ; I scarcely ever 
say it to a white man." Here Mrs. Kenton, who was engaged 
in some domestic occupation at the table, turned round and 
remarked, that when they were last in Kentucky, some one 
gave her the book to read to her husband ; and that when 
she came to that part, he would not let her read any further. 
"And I tell you," continued he, '' I was never tied to a stake 
in my life to be burned. They had me painted black when 
I saw Girty, but not tied to a stake." 

We are inclined to think, notwithstanding this, that the 
statement in the " Sketches," of his being three times tied 
to the stake, is correct ; for the author of that interesting 
work had before him a manuscript account of the pioneer's 
life, Avhich had been dictated by Mr. Kenton, to a gentleman 
of Kentucky, a number of years before, when he had no 
motive to exaggerate, and his memory was comparatively 
unimpaired. But he is now beyond the reach of earthly toil, 
or trouble, or suffering. His old age was as exemplary as 
his youth and manhood had been active and useful. And 
though his last years were clouded by poverty, and his eyes 
closed in a miserable cabin to the light of life, yet shall he 
occupy a bright page in our border history, and his name 
soon open to the light of fame. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

Interesting Sketcli of the life of General Stark, the hero of Bennington — 
The Battle of Bennington — Boston a century ago — Captain William 
Cunningham. 

Our history, which must necessarily be somewhat episodi- 
cal in its character, since we could hardly pretend to give in 
a single volume, a detailed history of Sam, must now return 
to the more northern arena of his struggles with the great 
foe whom he has so daringly defied, and with whom he so 
pertinaciously struggles. We shall give only rapid sketches 
of the concluding scenes of the Revolution, with some char- 
acteristic specimens of the indomitable humor with which 
the "giant youngling" met all the difficulties of his new 
position of contention with the foremost Powers of all the 
world. The battle of Bennington, which has been referred 
to in a graphic summary of the events of this period, in a pre- 
vious chapter, and taken principally from Judge Drayton's 
charge, has found a worthy historian in Eichard Everett, the 
brother of Edward, and we do not conceive, that the transfer 
of this noble sketch of the bluff and hardy hero. Stark, to 
our pages, does any discredit to the true history of " Sam" 
and his children. 

THE BATTLE OF BENNINGTON. 

BY RICHARD EVERETT. 

«' When Yankees skilled in martial rule, 
First put the British troops to school ; 
Instructed them in warlike trade, 
And new maneuvers of parade, 
The true war dance of Yankee reels, 
And manual exercise of heels ; 
Made them give up like saints complete, 
The arm of flesh, and trust the feet. 
And Avork like Christians undissembling, 
Salvation out with fear and trembling/' 

(416) 



" Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 417 

John Stark, the hero of Bennington, was a native of New 
Hampshire. At an early age he enlisted in a company of 
rangers, participated in several conflicts with the savages, 
and at last fell into their hands, a prisoner of war. Redeemed 
hy his friends for one hundred and three dollars, he joined 
Rogers' rangers, and served with distinction through the 
French and Indian difficulty. When the news came to his 
quiet home, that American blood had been spilt upon the 
green at Lexington, he rallied his countrymen, and hurried 
on to Boston with eight hundred brave mountaineers. He 
presented himself before the American commander on the 
eve of the battle of Bunker Hill, and receiving a coloneFs 
commission, instantly hurried to the intrenchments. 

Throughout the battle of Bunker Hill, Stark and his New 
Hampshire men nobly sustained the honor of the patriot 
cause, and no troops exceeded in bravery the militia regiment 
of Colonel John Stark. In the spring of 1776, he went to 
Canada, and at the battle of Trenton he commanded the right 
wing of Washington's army. He was at Princeton, Benning- 
ton, and several other severe battles, always sustaining his 
reputation, as a brave, honorable, sterling patriot, and an 
able general. He was a great favorite of General Washington, 
and very popular in the army. On the 8th of May, 1822, 
aged ninety-three years, he "was gathered to his fathers," 
and his remains repose upon the banks of the beautiful 
Merrimac, beneath a monument of granite, which bears the 
inscription — " Mx\jor-General Stark." 

Having given a very brief sketch of the celebrated oflacer 
who led our patriot militia upon the field of Bennington, we 
will proceed with the account of that battle. 

The magnificent army of General Burgoyne, which invaded 
the States in 1777, having become straightened for provisions 
and stores, the royal commander ordered a halt, and sent 
Colonel Baume, a Hessian officer, to scour the country for 
supplies. Baume took a strong force of British infantry, two 
pieces of artillery, and a squadron of heavy German dra- 
goons. A great body of Indians, hired and armed by the 
British, followed his force, or acted as scouts and flanking 
parties. 

Stark, on the intelligence of Burgoyne's invasion, was 
offered the command of one of two regiments of troops which 



•il8 "Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

were raised in New Hampshire, through the exertions, 
chiefly, of John Langdon, Speaker of the General Assem- 
bly. Stark had served for a long period as General, hut at 
that time was at home, a private citizen. But at the call of 
his countrymen he again took the field. The two regiments 
were soon raised, and with them, as senior officer, Stark 
hastened to oppose the British army. At that time the 
Vermont militia were enrolled into an organization, called 
the '' Berkshire Eegiment," under Colonel Warner. 

On arrivino; near Bennino'ton, Stark sent forward Colonel 
Gregg, with a small force to reconnoiter, hut that officer soon 
returned with information that a strong force of British, 
Hessians, and Indians was rapidly approaching. Upon this 
intelligence. Stark resolved to stand his ground and give 
battle. Messengers were sent at once to the Berkshire mili- 
tia to hurry on, and the patriots were directed to see that 
their weapons were in good order. This was on the 14th of 
August, 1777. During the day, Baume and his army 
appeared, and learning that the militia were collecting in 
front of his route, the commander ordered his army to halt, 
and throw up intrenchments. An express was also sent to 
General Burgoyne, for reinforcements. 

The 15th was dull and rainy. Both armies continued 
their preparations, while waiting for reinforcements. Skir- 
mishing was kept up all day and night, between the militia 
and the Indians, and the latter suffered so severely, that a 
great portion of the savage force left the field, saying that 
*' the woods were full of Yankees." About 12 o'clock on 
the night of the 15th, a party of Berkshire militia came 
into the American camp. At the head of one company, was 
the Eeverend Mr. Allen, of Pittsfield, and that worthy gen- 
tleman appeared full of zeal to meet the enemy. Sometime 
before daylight, he called on General Stark, and said: 
" General, the people of Berkshire county have often been 
called out, without being allowed to fight, and if you don't 
give them a chance, they have resolved never to turn out 
again. ^^ " Very well," replied Stark, " do you want to go at 
it now, while it is dark and rainy ?" " No, not just at this 
moment," said the warlike minister. *' Then," said the Gen- 
eral, " if the Lord shall once more give us sunshine, and I 
do not give you fighting enough, I '11 never ask you to come 



" 8am:" or, the History of Mystery. 419 

out again !" This satisfied the prea<;her, and he went out to 
cheer up his flock with the good news. 

Day dawned, bright and warm, on the 16th. All nature, 
invigorated by the mild August rain, glared with beauty and 
freshness. Before sunrise, the Americans were in motion, 
while from the British intrenchments, the sound of buoles 
and the roll of drums, told that Baume's forces were ready 
for action. Stark early arranged his plan of attack. Col- 
onel Nichols, vrith three hundred men, was sent out to attack 
the British rear ; Colonel Herrick, with three hundred men, 
marched against the right flank, but was ordered to join 
Nichols before making his assault general. With about 
three hundred men, Colonels Hubbard and Stickney were 
sent against the entrenched front, while Stark, with a small 
reserve, waited to operate whenever occasion oftered. It 
must be remembered that the American forces were militia, 
while Baume^s army was made up of well-disciplined, well- 
armed, and experienced soldiers. Many of the patriots were 
armed with fowling-pieces, and there were whole companies 
without a bayonet. They had no artillery. 

General Stark waited impatiently until the roar of mus- 
ketry proclaimed that the difterent detachments had com- 
menced their attack, and then forming his small battalion, 
he made his memorable speech: ^' Boys! there^s the enemy, 
and ive must beat them, or Molly Stark sleeps a ividoio 
to-night — Forward !" His soldiers, with enthusiastic shouts, 
rushed forward upon the Hessian defenses, and the battle 
became general. The Hessian dragoons, dismounted, met 
the Americans with stern bravery. The two cannons, loaded 
with grape and cannister, swept the hill-side with dreadful 
effect. 

Stark's white horse fell in less than ten minutes after his 
gallant rider came under fire, but on foot, with his hat in 
one hand, and his saber in the other, he kept at the head of 
his men, who, without flinching a single foot, urged their 
way up the little hill. Brave Parson Allen, with a clubbed 
musket, was seen amid the smoke, fighting in the front 
platoon of his company. The whole fiehl was a volcano of 
tire. Stark, in his ofiicial report, says that the two forces 
were within a few yards of each other, and " the roaring of 
their guns was like a continuous clap of thunder !" The 



420 " Sam : " or. the History of Mystery. 

Hessian and British reo'ulars, awustomed to liard-fouo-ht 
fields, held their ground stubbornly and bravely. For more 
than two hours the battle huno; in even scale. At leno'th, 
Baume ordered a charge ; at that instant he fell, mortally 
wounded, and his men charging forward, broke their ranks 
in such a manner, that the Americans succeeded, after a 
fierce hand to hand fight, in entering the intrenchments. 

Stark shouted to his men, " Forward, boys, charge them 
home !" and his troops, maddened by the conflict, swept the 
hill with irresistible valor. They pushed forward without 
discipline or order, seized the artillery, and gave chase to the 
flying enemy. The field being won, plunder became the 
object of the militia. 

The guns, sabres, stores and equipments of the defeated 
foe were being gathered up, when C5ol. Breyman, with five 
hundred men, suddenly appeared upon the field. He had 
been sent by Burgoyne to re-inforce Baume, but the heavy 
rain had prevented his men from marching at a rapid rate. 
The flying troops instantly rallied and joined the new array, 
which speedily assumed an order of battle, and began to press 
the scattered forces of the patriots. This was a critical 
period. Stark put forth every efl'ort to rally his men, but 
they were exhausted, scattered, and nearly out of ammuni- 
tion. It seemed as if the fortune of the day was in the 
royal hands, when from the edge of a strip of forest, half a 
mile off, came a loud and genuine American cheer. Stark 
turned, and beheld emerging from the wood, the Berkshire 
regiment, under Colonel Warner. This body of men, also 
delayed by the rain, after a forced march, had just reached 
the battle field, panting for a share in the aft'ray. General 
Stark hastened to the captain of the foremost company, and 
ordered him to lead his men to the charge at once. But the 
captain cooly asked, " Where's the colonel V I want to see 
Colonel Warner before I move.'' The colonel was sent for, 
and the redoubtable captain, drawing himself up, said, with 
the nasal twang peculiar to the puritans of old, "Naow, 
Kernal, what d'ye want me tu dew?" "Drive those 
red-coats from the hill yonder," was the answer. "Wall, it 
shall be done," said the captain, and issuing the necessary 
orders, he led his men to the charge without a moment's 
hesitation. 



" Sam : " or, the History of 31ystery. 421 

Said an eye-witne8s, afterwards, "The last we saw of 
AVanier's regiment for half an hour, was when they entered 
the smoke and tire about half way up the hill." Stark with 
a portion of his rallied troops supported the Berkshire men, 
and the royal forces were defeated, after a close contest. A 
portion of them escaped, but seven hundred men and officers 
were taken prisoners, among the latter Colonel Baumo, who 
soon died of his wound. 

The British lost two hundred and seven men killed, and a 
large number woumled. Of the Americans, about one hun- 
dred were killed and the same number wounded The spoils 
consisted of four pieces of cannon, several hundred stand of 
excellent muskets, two hundred and fifty dragoon swords, 
eight brass drums, and four wagons laden with stores, cloth- 
inff and ammunition. 

This victory severely crippled Burgoyne, and discouraged 
his army, while it enlivened the Americans from one extent 
of the country to the other. It taught the British troops to 
respect the American militia, and it was a brilliant precursor 
to the victories of Saratoga and Bemis' Hights. 

Congress voted thanks to General Stark and his brave 
troops for their great victory, and took measures to push on 
the war with renewed energy and hope. 

But the joke of "or Molly Stark's a widow," is not the 
only fun indulged in at this period, by " Sam," and at the 
expense too of " the magniticent army of Burgoyne." This 
pompous and important person had just before issued the 
following conciliatory document : 

?rocla:\iation. 

j% JoJm Burgoyne, Esq., Lieutenant General of His Majes- 
ty's armies in America, Colonel of the Queen's regiment of 
Light Dragoons. Governor of Fort William, in Xorth 
Britain, one of the Representatives of the Commons of Great 
Britain, and commanding an army and fleet employed on 
an Expedition from Canada, etc., etc., etc. 

The forces entrusted to my command are designed to act 
in concert, and upon a common principle, with the numerous 
armies and fleets wliich already display in every quarter of 



422 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

America the power, tlie justice, and, when properly sought, 
the mercy of the king. 

The cause in which the British army is thus exerted, 
applies to the most affecting interests of the human heart ; 
and the military servants of the crown, at first called forth 
for the sole purpose of restoring the rights of the constitu- 
tion, now combine witli love of their country and duty to 
their sovereign, the other extensive incitements, which form 
a due sense of the general privileges of mankind. To the 
eyes and ears of the temperate part of the public, and the 
breasts of suffering thousands in the provinces, be the melan- 
choly appeal, whether the present unnatural rebellion has 
not been made a foundation for the completest system of 
tyranny that ever God, in his displeasure, suffered for a time 
to be exercised over a stubborn and froward generation. 

Arbitrary imprisonment, confiscation of property, persecu- 
tion and torture, unprecedented in the inquisition of .the 
Eomish church, are among the palpable enormities that 
verify the affirmative. These are inflicted by assemblies and 
committees who dare to profess themselves friends to liberty, 
upon the most quiet subjects, without distinction of age or 
sex, for the sole crime, often for the sole suspicion, of having 
adhered in principle to the government under which they 
w'ere born, and to which, by every tie, divine and human, 
they owe allegiance. To consummate these shocking pro- 
ceedings, the profanation of religion is added to the most 
profligate prostitution of common reason — the consciences of 
men are set at naught, and multitudes are not only compelled 
to bear arms, but also to swear subjection to a usurpation 
they abhor. 

Animated by these considerations — at the head of troops 
in the full powers of health, discipline and valor — determined 
to strike where necessary, and anxious to spare where possible 
— I, by these presents, invite and exhort all persons, in all 
places whither the progress of this army may point — and, by 
the blessing of God, I will extend it far — to maintain such 
a conduct as may justify me in protecting their lands, habi- 
tations and families. The intention of this address is to 
hold forth security, not degradation, to the country. To 
those whom spirit and principle may indue to partake the 
glorious task of redeeming their countrymen from dangers, 



" Sam : " OR, THE History of Mystery. 423 

and re-establishing the blessings of legal government, I offer 
encouragement and employment ; and upon the first intelli- 
gence of their association, I will find means to assist their 
undertakings. The domestic, the industrious, the infirm, 
and even the timid inhabitants, I am desirous to protect, 
provided they remain quietly at their houses — that they do 
not suffer their cattle to be removed, nor their corn or forao-e 
to be secreted or destroyed — that they do not break up their 
bridges or roads, nor by any other act, directly or indirectly, 
endeavor to obstruct the operations of the king's troops, or 
supply or assist those of the enemy. 

Every species of provisions brought to my camp will be . 
paid for at an equitable rate, and in solid coin. 

In consciousness of Christianity, my royal master's clem- 
ency, and the honor of soldiership, I have dwelt upon this 
invitation, and wished for more persuasive terms to give it 
impression. And let not people be led to disregard it by 
considering their distance from the immediate situation of 
my camp. I have but to give stretch to the Indian forces 
under my direction — and they amount to thousands — to 
overtake the hardened enemies of Great Britain and America. 
I consider them the same wherever they may lurk. 

If, notwithstanding these endeavors and sincere inclinations 
to effect them, the frenzy of hostility should remain, I trust 
I shall stand acquitted in the eyes of God and men, in 
denouncino' and executino; the veno-eance of the State ao-ainst 
the willful outcasts. The messengers of j ustice and of wrath 
await them in the field ; and devastation, famine, and every 
concommitant horror that a reluctant but indispensable 
prosecution of military duty must occasion, will bar the way 
to their return. 

JOHN BUEGOYNE. 
Camp at Ticonderoga, July 2, 1777. 

By order of his excellency, the Lieutenant General : 

Egbert Kixgston, Secretary. 

Now hear " Sam's" answer through one of his chosen 
sons, to this facetious pronunciamento ! It is a veritable 
document of the " olden time," which the children of " Sam," 
during this or the last generation, have had no opportunity 
of perusing: 



424 --Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 



Ih Jolm Burgoyne, Esq., Lieutenant General of his 3Iajesty^8 
armies, in America, Qolonel of the Queen's regiment of light 
dragoons, Governor of Fort William in North Britain, one 
of the Representatives of the Commons of Great Britain, and 
commanding an army and fleet eynployed on an Expedition 
from Canada, etc., etc. etc. 

Most High, Most Mighty, Most Puissant, and Most Sub- 
lime General: — When the forces under your command 
arrived at Quebec, in order to act in concert, and upon a 
common principle, with the numerous fleets and armies which 
already display in every quarter of America, the justice and 
mercy of your king, we, the reptiles of America, were struck 
with unusual trepidation and astonishment. But what words 
can express the plentitude of our horror, when the Colonel 
of the Queen's regiment of light dragoons advanced toward 
Ticonderoga. The mountains shook before thee, and the 
trees of the forest bowed their lofty heads — the vast lakes 
of the north were chilled at thy presence, and the mighty 
cataracts stopped their tremendous career, and were suspended 
in awe at thy approach. Judge, then. Oh ! Ineffable Gov- 
ernor of Fort William, in North Britain, what must have 
been the terror, dismay, and despair that overspread this 
paltry continent of America, and us, its wretched inhabitants. 
Dark and dreary, indeed, was the prospect before us, till, 
like the sun in the horizon, your most gracious, sublime, and 
irresistible proclamation, opened the doors of mercy, and 
snatched us, as it were, from the jaws of annihilation. 

We foolishly thought, blind as we were, that your gracious 
master's fleets and armies were come to destroy us and our 
liberties ; but we are happy in hearing from you (and who 
can doubt what you assert ?) that they were called forth for 
the sole purpose of restoring the rights of the Constitution 
to a froward and stubborn generation. 

And is it for this, ! Sublime Lieutenant-General, that 
you have given yourself the trouble to cross the wide Atlantic, 
and with incredible fatigue traverse uncultivated wilds? 
And we ungratefully refuse the proffered blessing? To 
restore the rights of the Constitution, you have called 
together an amiable host of savages, and turned them loose 
to scalp our women and children, and lay our country waste — 



" Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 425 

this they have performed with their usual skill and clem- 
ency, and yet we remain insensible of the benefit, and 
unthankful for so much goodness. 

Our Congress has declared Independence, and our Assem- 
blies, as your Highness justly observes, have most wickedly 
imprisoned the avowed friends of that power with which they 
are at war, and most profanely compelled those whose con- 
sciences will not permit them to fight, to pay some small 
part toward the expenses their country is at, in supporting 
what is called a necessary defensive war. If we go on thus 
in our obstinacy and ingratitude, what can we expect, but 
that you should, in your anger, give a stretch to the Indian 
forces under your direction, amounting to thousands, to over- 
take and destroy us? or, which is ten times worse, that you 
should withdraw your fleets and armies, and leave us to our 
misery, without completing the benevolent task you have 
begun, of restoring to us the rights of the Constitution ? 

We submit — we submit — Most Puissant Colonel of the 
Queen's regiment of light dragoons, and Governor of Fort 
William, in North Britain. We off'er our heads to the 
scalping-knife, and our bellies to the bayonet. Who can 
resist the force of your eloquence ? Who can withstand the 
terror of your arms ? The invitation you have made in the 
consciousness of Christianity, your royal master's clemency, 
and the horror of soldiership, we thankfully accept. The 
blood of the slain, the cries of injured virgins and innocent 
children, and the never-ceasing sighs and groans of starving 
wretches, now languishing in the jails and prison-ships of 
New York, call on us in vain, while your sublime procla- 
mation is sounded in our ears. Forgive us, ! our country ! 
Forgive us, dear posterity! Forgive us, all ye foreign 
powers, who are anxiously watching our conduct in this 
important struggle, if we yield implicitly to the persuasive 
tongue of the most elegant Colonel of her Majesty's regiment 
of light dragoons. 

Forbear, then, thou magnanimous Lieutenant-General I 
Forbear to denounce vengeance against us. Forbear to give 
a stretch to those restorers of Constitutional rights, the Indian 
forces under your direction. Let not the messenger of justice 
and wrath await us in the field, and devastation, and every 
concomitant horror, bai' our return to the allegiance of a 
36 



426 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

prince, "wlio, by his royal will, would deprive us of every bless- 
ing of life, with all possible clemency. 

We are domestic, we are industrious, we are infirm and 
timid ; we shall remain quietly at home, and not remove our 
cattle, our corn, our forage, in hope that you will come, at 
the head of your troops, in the full powers of health, disci- 
pline, and valor, and take charge of them yourselves. Behold 
our wives and daughters, our flocks and herds, our goods and 
chattels, are they not at the mercy of our Lord the King, 
and of his Lieutenant-General, member of the House of Com- 
mons, and Governor of Fort William, in North Britain ? 

A. B. 
CD. 

E. F., ETC., ETC., ETC. 

Saratoga, \Oih July, 1777. 

" Sam" makes condescenamg proposals for a compromise with 
his haughty master. General Bui'goyne, and asks him in 
philanthropical spirit, to be " as mild as he can !'^ 

Proposal for an exchange of General Burgoyne. Ascribed 
to Ms Excellency William Livingston, Esq., Governor of the 
State of New Jersey. 

Should the report of General Burgoyne having infringed 
the capitulation, between Major General Gates and himself, 
prove to be true, our superiors will doubtless take proper 
care to prevent his reaping any benefit from it ; and should 
he be detained as a prisoner, for his infraction of any of the 
articles, I would humbly propose to exchange him, in such a 
manner as will, at the same time, flatter his vanity and re- 
dound to the greatest emolument to America. To evince 
the reasonableness of my proposal, I would observe, that by 
the same parity of reason that a general is exchanged for a 
general, a colonel for a colonel, and so on with respect to 
other officers, mutually of equal rank, we ought to have for 
one and the same gentleman who shall happen to hold both 
these offices, both a general and a colonel. This will appear 
evident from the consideration that those exchanges are 
never regulated by viewing the persons exchanged in the 
light of men, but as office7's; since otherwise, a colonel might 
as well be exchanged for a sergeant as for an officer of his 



" Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 427 

own rank ; a sergeant being, undoubtedly, equally a man, and, 
as the case sometimes happens, more of a man too. One 
prisoner, therefore, having twenty different offices, ought to 
redeem from captivity twenty prisoners, aggregately holding 
the same offices ; or such greater of less number as shall, 
with respect to rank, be eqflal to his twenty offices. This 
being admitted, I think General Burgoyne is the most profit- 
able prisoner we could have taken, having more offices, or, 
(what amounts to the same thing in Old England,) more 
titles, than any gentleman on this side the Ganges. And as 
his impetuous Excellency certainly meant to avail himself of 
his titles, by their pompous display in his proclamation, had 
he proved conqueror, it is but reasonable that wo should avail 
ourselves of them, now he is conquered ; and, till I meet 
with a better project for that purpose, I persuade myself 
that the following proposal will appropriate them to a better 
use than they were ever applied to before. 
The exchange I propose is as follows : 

I. For John Burgoyne, Esquire. 

Some worthy justice of the peace, magnanimously stolen 
out of his bed, or taken from his farm by a band of ruffians 
in the uniform of British soldiery, and now probably perish- 
ing with hunger and cold in a loathsome jail in New York. 

II. For John Burgoyne, Lieutenant General of His Majesty^ s 
armies in America. 

Two Majors General. 

III. For John Burgoyne, Colonel of the Queen's regiment of 
Light Dragoons. 

As the British troops naturally prize everything in pro- 
portion as it partakes of royalty, and undervalue whatever 
originates from a Republican government, I suppose a colonel 
of Her 3fajesty's own regiment Avill procure at least th7'ee 
Continental Colonels of horse. 

IV. For John Buro^ovne, Governor of Fort William, in 
North Britain. 

Here I would demand one governor of one of the United 
States, as his midtitulary excellence is governor of a fort, and 
two more, as that fort is in North Britain, which his Brit- 
tanic majesty may be presumed to value in that proportion ; 
but considering that the said fort is called William, whioh 
may excite in his majesty's mind the rebellious idea of liberty, 



428 '' Sam: '* or, the History op Mystery. 

I deduct one on that account, and, rather than puzzle the 
cartel with any perplexity, I am content with two governors. 

V. For John Burgoyne, one of the Eepresentatives of 
Great Britain. 

The first member of Congress who may fall into the 
enemy's hands. * 

VI. For John Burgoyne, Qommander of a fleet er)iployed in 
an expedition from Oanada. 

The Admiral of our navy. 

VII. For John Burgoyne, Commander of an army employed 
in an expedition from Canada. 

One Commander-in-Chief in any of our departments. 

VIII. For John Burgoyne, etc., etc., etc. 

Some connoisseurs in hieroglyphics imagine that these 
three et ceteras are emblematical of three certain occult 
qualities of the general, wdiich he never intends to exhibit 
in more legible characters, viz : prudence, modesty, and 
humanity. Others suppose that they stand for king 0/ America, 
and that, had he proved successful, he would have fallen 
upon General Howe, and afterwards have set up for himself. 
Be this as it may, (which it, however, behooves a certain 
gentleman on the other side the water seriously to consider,) 
I insist upon it, that as all dark and cabalistical characters 
are suspicious, these incognoscihle enigmas may portend much 
more than is generally apprehended. At all events, General 
Burgoyne has availed himself of their importance, and I 
doubt not they excited as much terror in his proclamation as 
any of his more luminous titles. As his person, therefore, 
is by the capture, become the property of the Congress, all 
his titles, (which some suppose to constitute his very essence,) 
whether more splendid or opaque, latent or visible, are become, 
ipso facto, the lawful goods and chattels of the Continent, 
and ought not to be restored without a considerable equivalent. 
If we should happen to overrate them, it is his own fault, it 
being in his power to ascertain their intrinsic value, and it 
is a rule in law, that when a man is possessed of evidence to 
disprove what is alleged against him, and refuses to produce 
it, the presumption raised against him is to be taken for 
granted. Certain it is, that these three et ceteras must 
stand for three somethings, and as these three somethings 
must, at least, be equal to three somethings without rank or 



" Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 429 

title, I had some tliouglits of setting them down for three 
privates; but then, as they are three somethings in General 
Burgoyne, which must be of twice the value of three any- 
things in any three privates, 1 shall only double them, and 
demand in exchange for these three problematical, enigmati- 
cal, hieroglyphical, mystic, necromantical, cabalistical, and 
portentious et ceteras, six privates. 

So that, according to my plan, we ought to detain this 
ideal conqueror of the North, now a rea? prisoner in the East, 
till we have got in exchange for him, one esquire, two majors- 
general, three colonels of light horse, two governors, one 
member of Congress, the admiral of one navy, one com- 
mander-in-chief in a separate department, and six privates ; 
which is probably more than this extraordinary hero would 
fetch in any part of Great Britain, were he exposed at public 
auction for a year and a day. All which is nevertheless, 
humbly submitted to the consideration of the honorable, the 
Congress, and his excellency, General Washington. 

Princeton, December 8th, 1777. 

In order that good jokes may not go abroad without com- 
pany we append the following, which are quite equally 
expressive of the spirit of the times of which we treat : 

REMINISCENCES. 

BOSTON LESS THAN A CENTUEY AGO. 

Ih^ess, etc. — Seventy years ago cocked hats, wigs, and red 
cloaks, were the usual dress of gentlemen — boots were rarely 
seen, except among military men. Shoe-strings were worn 
only by those who could not afford to buy buckles. In winter, 
round coats were used, made stiff with buckram — they came 
dowu to the knees in front. 

Before the Revolution, boys wore wigs and cocked hats ; 
and boys of genteel families wore cocked hats till within the 
last thirty years. 

Ball-dress for gentlemen was silk coat, and breeches of the 
same, and embroidered waistcoats — sometimes white satin 
breeches. Buckles were fashionable till within the last fifteen 
or twenty years, and a man could not have remained in a 
ball-ro>ia with shoe-strings. It was usual for the bridegroom 



430 '* Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

and maids, and men attending, to go to churcli together 
three successive Sundays after the wedding, with a change 
of dress each day. A gentleman who deceased not long since, 
appeared the first Sunday in white broadcloth, the second in 
blue and gold, the third in peach bloom, pearl buttons. It 
was a custom to hang the escutcheon of a deceased head of 
a family out of a window over the front door, from the time 
of his decease until after his funeral. The last instance 
which is remembered of this, was in the case of Gov. Han- 
cock's uncle, 1764. Copies of the escutcheon, painted on 
black silk, were more anciently distributed among the pall- 
bearers, rings afterward — and, until within a few years, gloves. 
Dr. A. Elliott had a mug full of rings which were presented to 
him at funerals. Till within twenty years, gentlemen wore 
powder, and many of them sat from thirty to forty minutes 
under the barber's hand, to have their hair cropped ; suffer- 
ing no inconsiderable pain from hair-pulling, and sometimes 
from hot tongs. Crape cushions and hoops were indispensable 
in full dress, until within thirty years. Sometimes ladies 
were dressed the day before the party and slept in easy chairs, 
to keep their hair in fit condition for the following night. 
Most ladies went to parties on foot, if they could not get a 
cast in a friend's carriage or chaise. Gentlemen rarely had 
a chance to ride. 

The latest dinner hour was two o'clock ; some ofiicers of 
the colonial government dined later occasionally. In genteel 
families, ladies went to drink tea about four o'clock, and 
rarely stayed after candle-light in summer. It was the 
fashion for ladies to propose to visit — not to be sent for. 
The drinking of punch in the forenoon, in public houses, was 
a common practice with the most respectable men, till about 
five and twenty years; and evening clubs were very common. 
The latter, it is said, were more common formerly, as this 
afforded the means of communion on the state of the country. 
Dinner parties were very rare. Wine was very little in use ; 
convivial parties drank punch or toddy. Half boots came 
into use about thirty years ago. The first pair that appeared 
in Boston were worn by a young gentleman, who came here 
from New York, and who was more remarkable for his boots 
than anything else. Within twenty years, gentlemen wore 
scarlet coats, with black velvet collars and verv costly buttons, 



"Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 431 

of mock pearl, cut steel, or painted glass—and neckcloths 
edged with lace, and laced ruffles over the hands. Before 
the Ee volution, from five to six hundred pounds was the 
utmost of annual expenditure in those families where carriages, 
and corresponding domestics were kept. There were only 
two or three carriages, that is chariots or coaches, in 1750. 
Chaises on four wheels, not phaetons, were in use in families 
of distinction. 

The history of the lAberty-Tree is said to be this : That a 
certain Capt. Mcintosh illuminated the tree, and hung upon 
it effigies of obnoxious characters, and that these were taken 
down by the liberty boys and burnt, and the tree thus got 
its name. 

Tlie Popes. — A stage was erected on wheels — on this stage 
was placed a figure in the chair, called the pope ; behind him, 
a female figure, in the attitude of dancing, whom they called 
Nancy Dawson ; behind her Admiral Byng, hanging on a 
gallows ; and behind him the devil. A similar composition 
was made at the South-end, called Soutli-end pope. In the 
daytime the processions, each drawing with them their popes 
and their attendants, met and passed each other, on the mill 
or draw-bridge, very civilly ; but in the evening, they met 
at the same point, and a battle ensued with lists, sticks and 
stones ; and one or the other of the popes was captured. 
The North-end pope was never taken but once, and then the 
captain had been early wounded and taken from the field. 
The pope conflicts were held in memory of the powder-plot 
of Xov. 5, and were some sort of imitation of wdiat was done 
in England on the same anniversary. 

A man used to ride on an ass, with immense jackboots, 
and his face covered with a horrible mask, and was called, 
Joyce Jr. His office was to assemble men and boys, in mob 
style, and ride in the middle of them, and in such company 
to' terrify the adherents to the royal government, before the 
Eevolution. The tumult which resulted in the massacre of 
1770, was excited by such means. Joyce, junior, was said to 
have a particular whistle, which brouglit his adherents, etc., 
whenever they were wanted. 

About 1730 to 1740, there was no meat market: there 
were only three or four shops in which fresli meat was sold — 
one of them was the corner of State street and Cornhill, 



4:32 *' Sam : " or, the History of Mastery. 

where Mr. Hartsliorn now keeps. Gentlemen used to go the 
day before, and have their names put down for what they 
wanted. Outside of this shop was a large hook, on which 
carcasses used to hang. A little man, who was a justice of 
the peace, came one day for meat, but came too late. He 
was disappointed, and asked to whom such and such pieces 
were to go? One of them was to go to a tradesman; (it was 
not a common thing in those days, for tradesmen to eat fresh 
meat,) the justice went out, saying he would send the trades- 
man a salad for his lamb. He sent an overdue and unpaid 
tax-bill. Soon after, the tradesman met the justice near 
this place, and told him he would repay his kindness ; which 
he did, by hanging the justice up by the waistband of his 
breeches to the butcher's hook, and leaving him to get down 
as he could. 

TARRING AND FEATHERING ORIGINALLY A YANKEE TRICK. 

From the American Mercury. 

This appears from the speech of McFingal, the Tory Saga- 
more, to the Yankee mob: 

" Was there a Yankee trick ye knew, 
They did not play as well as you ? 
Did they not lay their heads together, 
And gain your art to tar and feather ?" 

TARRING AND FEATHERING LAWFUL! 

This appears, by the authority of the sentence which was 
pronounced on McFingal. This sentence, be it remembered, 
though seemingly an order and decree of a committee, in 
fact, had its origin in the brain of a man who was a judge 
of the Supreme Court of the State of Connecticut. Whether 
appointed judge from this specimen of hia judicial knoivledge, 
or not, is not now in question ; but let us hear the sentence 
on McFingal, king of the Tories. 

♦' Meanwhile, beside the pole, the guard 
A bench of justice had prepared, 
Where, sitting round in awful sort, 
The grand committee hold the Court ; 
While all the crew in silent awe, 
Wait from their lips the lore of law. 
Few moments with deliberation, 
They hold the solemn consultation, 



"Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 433 

When soon in judgment all agree, 
And clerk declares the dread decree 

" That Squire McFingal, having grown, 
The vilest Tory in the town, 
And now, on full examination, 
Convicted by his own confession. 
Finding no token of repentance, 
This Court proceed to render sentence : 
That first, the mob, a slip-knot single, 
Tie round the neck of said McFingal ; 
And in due form do tar him next. 
And feather, as the Imo directs : 
Then through the town attendant ride him 
In cart, with constable beside him, 
And having held him up to shame, 
Bring to the pole, from whence he came." 

Vision and prediction of McFingal, king of the Tories, 
when in coat of tar and feathers : 

" Tar, yet in embryo in pine, 
Shall run, on Tories' back to shine; 
Trees rooted fair in groves of fallows, 
Are growing for our future gallows ; 
And geese unhatched, when plucked in fray, 
Shall rue the feathering of that day." 

In order to show that there may he two sides to every 
question, we give also, the confession of a rank Tory of this 
period, which goes far to exhibit the origin of the Lynch 
law, in a somewhat palliative light. " Sam,'' it will he per- 
ceived, has never licensed Lynch law, from the beginning: 
but that its possibility constitutes one of the facetiae of his 
moods, the detail of provocations in this extract will clearly 
show. 

CAPTAIN WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM. 

The following is copied from the American Apollo, No. 7, 
Vol. 1, Friday, February 17, 1792, printed at Boston, by 
Belknap & Young, State street, (a weekly paper, in the form 
of a pamphlet,) : 

The Life, Confessim, and last Dying Words of Captain^ Wil- 
liam Cunningham, formerly British Provost Marshal in tlie. 
city of New Yoi^k, who was executed in Loridon, the 1 0th 
of August, 1791. 

I, William Cunningham, was born in Dublin Barracks, in 
the year 1738. My father was trumpeter to the Blue Dra- 
goons, and at the age of eight I was placed with an officer as 
37 



434 *' Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

Ills servant, in which station I continued until I was sixteen, 
and, being a great proticient in horsemanship, was taken as 
an assistant to the riding-master of the troops, and in the 
year 1761, was made sergeant of dragoons; but the peace 
coming the year after, I was disbanded. Being bred to no 
profession, I took up with a woman wlio kept a gin-shop in a 
blind alley, near the Coal Quay ; but the house being searched 
for stolen goods, and my dosy taken to Newgate, I thought it 
most prudent to decamp. Accordingly I set off for the North, 
and arrived at Drogheda, Avhere, in a few months after, I 
married the daughter of an exciseman, by whom I had 
three sons. 

About the year 1772, we removed to Newry, where I com- 
menced the profession of a scow-banker, which is that of 
enticing the mechanics and country people to ship themselves 
for America ; they are sold or obliged to serve a term of years 
for their passage. I embarked at Xewry in the ship Need- 
ham, for New York, and arrived at that port the 4th day of 
August, 1774, with some indented servants I kidnapped in 
Ireland ; but these were liberated in New York on account of 
the bad usage they received from me during the passage. In 
that city I followed the profession of breaking horses, and 
teaching ladies and gentlemen to ride, but rendering myself 
obnoxious to the citizens in their infant struggle for freedom, 
I was obliged to fly on board the Asia man-of-war, and from 
thence to Boston, where my own opposition to the measures 
pursued by the Americans in support of their rights, was the 
first thing that recommended me to the notice of General 
Gage, and wlien the war commenced I was appointed Provost 
Marshal to the royal army, which placed me in a situation to 
wreak my vengeance on the Americans. I shudder to think 
of the murders I have been accessory to, both with and tvith- 
out orders from Government especially while in New York — 
during which time there were more than two thousand prison- 
ers starved in the different churches, by stopping their 
rations, which I sold. 

There w^ere also two hundred and seventy-five American 
prisoners and obnoxious persons executed, out of all which 
number there were only about one dozen public executions, 
which chiefly consisted of British and Hessian deserters. The 
mode for private executions was thus conducted : A guard 



<*Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 435 

was despatched from the provost, about half-past twelve at 
night, to the barracks street, and the neighborhood of the 
upper barracks, to order the people to shut their window 
shutters and to put out their lights, forbidding them, at the 
same time, to presume to look out of their windows and 
doors, on pain of death ; after which, the unfortunate prison- 
ers were conducted, gagged, just behind the upper barracks, 
and hung without ceremony, and then buried bj the black 
pioneer of the provost. 

At the end of the war, I returned to England with the 
army, and settled in Wales, as being a cheaper place of living 
than in any of the populous cities, but being at length per- 
suaded to go to London, I entered so warmly into the dissi- 
pations of that capital, that I soon found my circumstances 
much embarrassed. To relieve which I mortgaged my half 
pay to an army agent, but that being soon expended, I forged 
a draft for three hundred pounds sterling, on the Board of 
Ordnance, but being detected in presenting it for acceptance, 
I was apprehended, tried, and convicted — and for that offense 
am here to suffer an ignominious death. 

I beg the pardon of all good Christians, and also pardon 
and forgiveness of God, for the many horrid murders I have 
been accessory to. 

WiLLL\M Cunningham. 

The disastrous defeat of Burgoyne, with the details and 
consequences of which our readers are already sufficiently 
familiar, had been immediately preceded by a regular influx 
of foreign adventurers, comprising every stamp of the true 
Condittori, which at that time swarmed throughout the coun- 
tries of Europe. They came here like the plagues of Egypt, 
with insolent buzzings around the doors of Congress, insti- 
gated by the too easy promises of Deane, and gave occasion, 
finally, to one of the most bitter letters ever written by Wash- 
ington, who, goaded, lilie some noble animal by gad-flies, 
besought Congress to rid him of these endless swarms. De 
Kalb, Pulaski, Steuben, and the enthusiastic Lafayette, were 
of course exceptions. Enthusiasm and the accident of birth, 
which gave him court influence at Paris, seem always to have 
been more the merit of the last, than talent — much as he 



436 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

has been lauded and almost deified. Nevertheless, Washing- 
ton — the then representative of " Sam " — saw his uses, and 
loved him as an excellent man, as he undoubtedly was. He 
proved of great use through his disinterested interest in our 
cause, in conciliating toward us and bringing about our 
treaty with France — which, by the way, it was not a whit 
more to our interest than than it should never have been 
formed. 

At the commencement of the war, the aid of foreign officers 
had been thought highly desirable, especially in the depart- 
ments of artillery and engineering, in which there was a 
great deficiency of native skill and science. It was one part 
of Deane's commission to engage a few officers of this 
description, a matter in which he had gone a good deal 
beyond his instructions. Beset with endless solicitations, to 
which tlie fear of giving offense, and the hope of securing 
influence, induced him too often to yield, he had sent out not 
less than fifty officers of all ranks, to whom he had made 
extravagant promises of promotion, which occasioned great 
discontent among the native officers, and no Ijttle embarrass- 
ment to Congress. Greene, Sullivan, and Knox, in a joint 
letter, a few weeks before Washington's visit to Congress, 
had threatened to resign if a certain M. Du Coudray were 
promoted to the command of the artillery, with the rank of 
major general, agreeably to a contract which Deane had 
signed with him, in consideration of certain supplies which 
he had furnished. Congress, with a just sense of its dignity, 
voted this letter of the generals "an attempt to influence 
their decision, an invasion of the liberties of the people, and 
indicating a want of confidence in the justice of Congress," 
for which the writers were required to make an apology. 
Having consented to serve for the present as a volunteer, 
with a merely nominal rank, Du Coudray was drowned shortly 
after in crossing the Schuylkill. 

There was, indeed, among the American officers excessive 
jealousy and great heart-burnings on the subject of rank, 
precedence and command, not only as to foreigners, but as to 
each other. Congress professed to be governed in its promo- 
tions by the complex considerations of former rank, merito- 
rious service, and the number of troops raised by the States 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 437 

to which the officers respectively belonged. But the officers 
imagined, and not always without reason, that intrigue and 
personal favor had quite as much influence. 

Among the contracts made by Deane was one with Du 
Portail, La Radiere, and Du Govion, three eno-ineer officers 
of merit, recommended by the French court, who were now 
placed at the head of the engineer department, thus com- 
pleting the organization of the new army. Kosciusko, whose 
entry of the service has been already mentioned, was appointed 
engineer for the northern department. 

The Count Pulaski, who had already gained distinction in 
Europe by his attempts to resist the first partition of Poland, 
had just arrived in America, and had offered his services to 
Congress. 

The foreign officers above named were persons of merit ; 
but too large a proportion of those who came to seek com- 
missions in America, whether sent by Deane, or adventurers 
on their own account, even some who brought high recom- 
mendations, were remarkable for nothing but extravagant self- 
conceit, and boundless demands for rank, command, and pay. 

Of a very different character was the Marquis de Lafayette, 
a youth of nineteen, belonging to one of the most illustrious 
families of t'rance, who had just arrived in America, and 
whom General Washington now met at Philadelphia for the 
first time. Like all other French nobles of that day, he had 
received a military education, and held a commission in the 
French army. Li garrison at Metz, he had been present at 
an entertainment given by the governor of that city to the 
Duke of Gloucester, brother of the British king, and on that 
occasion, from the duke^s lips, he first heard the story of the 
American rebellion. His youthful fancy was fired by the 
idea of this transatlantic struggle for liberty, and, though 
master of an ample fortune, and married to a wife whom he 
tenderly loved, he resolved at once to adventure in it. For 
that purpose he opened a communication with Deane. His 
intention becoming known, the French court, which still kept 
up the forms of neutrality, forbade him to go. But he 
secretly purchased a ship, which Deane loaded with military 
stores, and set sail at a moment when the news of the loss 
of New York and the retreat through the Jerseys made most 
foreigners despair of the American cause. The French court 



438 "Sam:^' or, the History of Mystery. 

sent orders to the West Indies to intercept him ; but he sailed 
directly for the United States, arrived in safety, presented 
himself to Congress, and offered to serve as a volunteer, 
without pay. Admiring his disinterestedness not less than 
his zeal, and not uninfluenced by his rank and connections, 
Congress gave him the commission of major general, which 
Dean had promised ; but, for the present, content with the 
rank without any command, he entered the military family 
of Washington, for whom he soon contracted a warm and 
lasting friendship, which Washington as warmly returned. 
La Fayette brought with him eleven other officers ; among 
them the Baron De Kalb, a German veteran, presently com- 
missioned as major general. 

The unsuccessful battles of Brandywine and Germantown, 
which soon followed, brought into rather singular contrast, 
the military reputations of Washington and the English 
renegade, Gates, who commanded at the surrender of Bur- 
goyne. The terrible winter of 1777, had been passed by 
Washington's miserable army, at Valley Forge, amidst the 
extremes of suffering, from privations of every kind, when 
there at once appears to be a formidable cabal on hand, for 
supplanting him, in favor of the mediocre adventurer. Gates. 
Here is Hildreth's account of this infamous cabal. 

While Washington was exerting himself to the utmost, to 
preserve the army from total disorganization, a project was 
on foot to remove him from the chief command. Several 
persons, conspicuous in Congress and the army, were more 
or less concerned in this movement ; but most of the inform- 
ation respecting it, has been carefully suppressed, and its 
history is involved in some obscurity. Every biographer has 
been very anxious to shield his special hero, from the charge 
of participation in this affair, indignantly stigmatized, by 
most writers, as a base intrigue. Yet doubts, at that time, 
as to Washington's fitness for the chief command, though 
they might evince prejudice or a lack of sound judgment, 
do not necessarily imply either selfish ends or a malicious 
disposition. The Washington of that day was not Washing- 
ton as we know him, tried and proved by tw^enty years of 
the most disinterested and most successful public services. 
As yet, he had been in command but little more than two 
years, during which, he had suffered, with some slight 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 439 

exceptions, a continued series of losses and defeats. He had 
recovered Boston, to be sure, but had lost New York, New- 
port, and Philadelphia. He had been completely successful 
at Trenton, and partially so at Princeton, but had been 
beaten, with heavy loss, on Long Island and at Fort Wasli- 
ington, and lately, in two pitched battles, on ground of his 
own choosing, at Brandywine and Gormantown. What a 
contrast to the battles of Behmis' Hights, and the capture 
of Bargoyne's whole army ! Want of success, and sectional 
and personal prejudices, had created a party in ConoTcss 
against Schuyler and against Sullivan. Could Wasliington 
escape the common fate of those who lose ? Eichard Henry 
Lee and Samuel Adams seem to have been the leaders of a 
party gradually formed in Congress, and for some time 
strong enough to exercise a material influence on its action, 
which ascribed to the commander-in-chief a lack of viiror 
and enero'v, and a svstem of favoritism deleterious to the 
public service. The Pennsylvanians were much annoyed at 
the loss of Philadelphia; and several leading persons 'in that 
State, seem to have co-operated with this party, especially 
Mifflin — a plausible, judicious, energetic, ambitious man, 
ver}'' popular and very influential, but of whose recent man- 
agement of the quarter-master's department, Washington 
had loudly complained. Nor were other malcontents want- 
ing in the army. The marked confidence which Wasliington 
reposed in Greene, gave offense to some ; others had purposes 
of their own to serve. Conway aspired to the office of 
inspector-general, the establishment of which he had sug- 
gested ; and, not finding his pretensions favored by Wash- 
ington, he indulo-ed in verv free criticisms on the state of 
the troops, and the incapacity of the commander-m-chiet. 
Gates, who might aspire, since his sucesses at the north, to 
the most elevated station, should the post of commander-in- 
chief become vacant, had lately behaved toward Wasiiiiigton 
with marked coldness and neglect. A correspondence, highly 
derogatory to Washington's military character, was carried 
on between Gates, Mifflin, and Conway. By the indiscretion 
of the youthful Wilkinson, who talked rather too freely over 
his cups, at Sterling's quarters, when on his way to Congress 
with the news of Burgovne's surrender, a pointed sentence 
from one of Con wav's^ letters to Gates leaked out, and was 



440 *' Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 

communicated by Sterling to Washington, who inclosed it in 
a note to Conway. Suspecting that Hamilton, during liis 
visit to Albany, had, as he expressed it, " stealingly copied " 
Conway's letter. Gates demanded to know, in very high 
terms, by what breach of confidence Washington had become 
possessed of the extract. When Wilkinson was given as the 
authority, he changed his ground, and, in an elaborate letter, 
alleged that the pretended extract was a forgery, and that 
Conway had written nothing of the sort. Conway^s letter, 
however, was not produced ; and to Washington's sarcastic 
allusion to that fact, and to the manifest discrepancy between 
his first and second letters, Gates, anxious to hush up the 
matter, made a very tame and submissive answer. 

In the composition of the new Board of war, the influence 
of the party opposed to Washington became very apparent. 
Gates was made president of it, and Mifilin a member. The 
other members were Pickering, who resigned for that pur- 
pose his office of acyutant-general, Joseph Trumbull, the late 
commissary-general, and Eichard Peters, secretary of the old 
Board. Harrison, Washington's secretary, was elected, but 
declined. In spite of Washington's earnest remonstrances, 
Conway, promoted over the heads of all the brigadiers to the 
rank of major-general, was made inspector of the armies of 
the United States. An attempt was also made, but without 
success, to gain over La Fayette, by offering him the com- 
mand of an expedition against Canada. Beside these open 
measures, calculated to disgust Washington, and to cause 
him to resign, secret intrigues were resorted to, of a very dis- 
reputable character. Anonymous letters, criticising Wash- 
ington's conduct of the war, were addressed to Patrick Henry, 
governor of Virginia, and to Laurens, president of Congress ; 
but these gentlemen, in the true spirit of honorable candor, 
at once inclosed these letters to Washington. One of them, 
Washington ascribed to Dr. Eush. 

When these intrigues became known in the army, they 
produced among the officers a great burst of indignation. 
Nor did the idea of a new commander-in-chief find any sup- 
port in the State Legislatures or the public mind. Li spite 
of losses, the inevitable result of insufficient means, Wash- 
ington was firml}^ rooted in the respect and affection of the 
soldiers and the people, who had not failed to perceive and 



*'Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 441 

to appreciate his incomparable qualifications for the station 
which he held. Seeing how strongly the country and the 
army were against them, most of the parties concerned in 
the late project for a new commander-in-chief denied or con- 
cealed as much as possible, their participation in it ; and the 
result served at once to evince and to strengthen the hold of 
Washington on the general confidence. (1778.) 

Being presently ordered to the northern department, Con- 
way sent a letter to Congress, in which he complained of ill- 
treatment in being thus banished from the scene of action, 
and ofi:ered to resign. Very contrary to his intention, he 
was taken at his word. All his attempts to get the vote 
reconsidered were in vain. He was wounded soon after in a 
duel with General Cadwallader, who had accused him of cow- 
ardice at the battle of Brandywine ; and, supposing himself 
near his end, he sent a humble apology to Washington. On 
his recovery he returned to France. 

Gates was sent to the Highlands to superintend the new 
fortifications to be erected there. Both he and MiflSin ceased 
to act as members of the Board of War, and their place on 
it was ultimately supplied by two members of Congress, 
appointed to serve for short periods. 

Mifilin obtained leave to join the army again ; but the 
other officers, not liking this intrusion on the part of one 
who had never held any command in the line, got up a 
charge against him, which was referred to a court of inquiry, 
of having mismanaged the quarter-master's department. 
The accounts and business of that department had been left 
in a good deal of confusion ; but there seems to have been 
no serious ground of charge against Mifflin. Finding him- 
self so unpopular with the officers, he presently resigned his 
commission of major-general ; but he continued to take an 
active and leading part in affairs, being presently appointed 
a member of Congress from Pennsylvania. 

The more Congress reflected on the terms of Burgoyne's 
capitulation, the less satisfactory those terms appeared. The 
troops of that army, transported to England, and placed in 
garrison there, would relieve just as many other men for 
service in America. Some cavils had begun to be raised 
about an alleged deficiency of cartouch-boxes surrendered, 
when an impatient letter from Burgoyne furnished a much 



442 *' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

more plausible pretext. The British general complained that 
proper accommodations had not been furnished to his officers, 
and, in the vexation of the moment, incautiously alleged 
that the Americans had broken the convention. Catching 
eagerly at this hasty expression, which Congress chose to con- 
strue into a repudialion of the treaty by the very officer who 
had made it, it was resolved to suspend the embarkation of 
the troops " till a distinct and explicit ratification of the con- 
vention of Saratoo'a shall be properly notified by the court 
of Great Britain.'^ Nor could any remonstrances or expla- 
nations on the part of Burgoyne, obtain any change or modi- 
fication in a policy founded, indeed, more on considerations of 
interest than of honor, and for which Burgoyne's letter had 
but served as a pretext. The transports which had arrived 
at Boston were ordered to depart. Burgoyne only, with one 
or two attendants, was suffered to go to England, on parole. 
Such was the end of this famous triumph, the capture of 
Burgoyne, and of the cabal to which it gave a head, which, had 
it proved successful, would have caused the first important 
triumph of " Sam" to have been the ruin of his people. 
Throwing their destinies into the hands of two military 
adventurers, as it would have done, it requires no prophet to 
foresee what disastrous consequences must have followed. 
Even so late as this year, 1778, we find the following signifi- 
cant letter from Washington, which aftbrds a clear glimpse 
of the trials through which this heroic man was compelled to 
pass, in keeping together our unfortunate army : — 

Extract of a Utter from General Washington, to Congress, 
dated Head Quarters, Springfield, 20th June, 1780. 

" The honorable the committee will have informed Con- 
gress, from time to time, of the measures which have been 
judged essential to be adopted for co-operating with the ar- 
mament expected from France, and of their requisitions to 
to the States in consequence. What the result of these has 
been I cannot determine, to my great anxiety, as no answers 
on the subject of them have been yet received. The period 
is come when we have every reason to ex])ect the fleet will 
arrive — and yet, for want of this point of primary conse- 
quence, it is impossible for me to form or fix on a system of 
co-operation — I have no basis to act upon — and, of course, 



"Sam:" or, the History op Mystery. 443 

were this generous succour of our ally to arrive, I should 
find uiyself in the most awkward, emharrassing and painful 
situation. The general and the admiral, from tlie relation 
in which I stand, as soon as they approach our coast, will re- 
quire of me a plan of the measures to be pursued ; and these 
ought, of right, to he prepared ; but circumstanced as I am, 
I cannot give them conjectures. From these considerations, 
I have suggested to the committee, by a letter I had the 
honor of addressing them yesterday, the indispensable neces- 
sity of their writing again to the States, urging them to give 
immediate and precise information of the measures they 
have taken and of the result. The interest of the States, 
the honor and reputation of our councils, the justice and 
gratitude due onr allies, a regard to myself — all require that 
I should, without delay, be enabled to ascertain and inform 
them -what we can, or cannot undertake. There is a point 
which ought now to be determined, on which the success of 
all our future operations may depend, which for want of 
knowing our prospects, I am altogether at a loss what to do 
in. For fear of involving the fleet and army of our allies 
in circumstances which, if not seconded by us, would expose 
them to material inconvenience and hazard, I shall be com- 
pelled to suspend it, and the delay may be fatal to our 
hopes. 

Beside the embarrassments I have mentioned above, and 
on former occasions, there is another of a very painful and 
humiliating nature. We have no shirts, from the best in- 
quiry I can make, to distribute to the troops, when the whole 
are in great want, and when a great part of them are abso- 
lutely destitute of any at all. Their situation too with 
respect to summer overalls, I fear, is not likely to be much 
better. There are a great many on hand, it is said, in 
Springfield, but so indifferent in their quality as to be 
scarcely worth the expense of transportation and delivery. 
For the troops to be without clothing at any time, is highly 
injurious to the service and distressing to our feelings ; but 
the want will be more peculiarly mortifying when they come 
to act with those of our allies. ^ If it "is possible, I have no 
doubt immediate measures will be taken to relieve their dis- 
tress. It is also most sincerely to be wished that tliere could 
be some supplies of clothing furnished for the officers. 



444 "Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

There are a great many whose condition is really miserable 
still, and in some instances it is the case with almost whole 
State lines. It would be well for their own sakes, and for 
the public good, if they could be furnished. When our 
friends come to co-operate with us, they will not be able to 
go on tlie common routine of duty, and if they should, tliey 
must be held, from their appearance, in low estimation. 

What a commentary does this manly letter furnish upon 
the petty and venal injustice of his cotemporary foes, toward 
one of the greatest of all the characters of history ! 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

Sketch of Colonel Daniel Morgan — The Non-resistant Principles of the 
Quakers — Its consequences about these times. 

It is impossible for us to continue a detailed account of the 
succeeding Pwevolutionary events. These are too familiar to 
the general reader, to render their relation necessary, even 
if our space admitted of such dilation. Our object has been, 
to reproduce such characteristic memorials of the prominent 
events in the history of " Sam,'' as — being likely, from their 
antiquity, to be lost — renew also, by their cotemporary fresh- 
ness, our memory of the true spirit of that early time, which 
is likely to prove so necessary to this degenerate period. 
The following sketch of that noble old patriarch of American 
heroes, Daniel Morgan, has an unction in it, which might 
serve to regenerate a thousand modern Tories. 

DANIEL MORGAN. 

From the " Custis Recollections and Private Memoirs of the Life 

and Character of Washington." 

The outposts of the two armies were very near to each 
other, when the American commander, desirous of obtaining 
particular information respecting the positions of his adver- 
sary, summoned the famed leader of the riflemen. Colonel 
Daniel Morgan, to headquarters. 

It was night, and the chief was alone. After his usual 
polite, yet reserved and dignified salutation, AV^ashington 
remarked: "I have sent for you. Colonel Morgan, to intrust 
to your courage and sagacity, a reconnoiter of the enemy's 
lines, with a view to your ascertaining correctly, the position 

(446) 



446 " Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 

of tlieir newly-constructed redoubts ; also of the encampments 
of the British troops that have lately arrived, and those of 
their Hessian auxiliaries. Select, sir, an officer, a non-com- 
missioned officer, and about twenty picked men, and, under 
cover of the night, proceed, but with all possible caution, get 
as near as you can, and learn all you can, and by day dawn 
retire, and make your report to headquarters. But mark 
me. Colonel Morgan, mark me well, on no account whatever, 
are you to bring on any skirmishing with the enemy; if 
discovered, make a speedy retreat; let nothing induce you 
to fire a single shot ; I repeat, sir, that no force of circum- 
stances will excuse the discharge of a single rifle on your 
part, and for the extreme prcciseness of these orders, permit 
me to say, that I have my reasons." Filling two glasses with 
wine, tlie general continued: "And now, Colonel Morgan, 
we will drink a good night, and success to your enterprise." 
Morgan quailed the wine, smacked his lips, and assuring his 
excellency that his orders should be punctually obeyed, left 
the tent of the commander-in-chief. 

Charmed at beino- chosen as the executive officer of a 
daring enterprise, the leader of the woodsmen repaired to 
his quarters, and calling for Gabriel Long, his favorite cap- 
tain, ordered him to detach a sergeant and twenty prime 
fellows, who being mustered, and ordered to lay on their 
arms, ready at a mementos warning, Morgan and Long 
stretched their manly forms before the watch-fire, to await the 
going down of the moon, the signal for departure. 

A little after midnight, and while the rays of the setting 
moon still faintly glimmered in the western horizon, " Up, 
sergeant," cried Long, "stir up your men," and tAventy ath- 
letic figures were upon their feet in a moment. " Lidian 
file, march," and away all sprung, with the quick, yet light 
and stealthy step of the woodsmen. They reached the 
enemy's lines, crawled up so close to the pickets of the Hes- 
sians, as to inhale the odor of their pipes, discovered, by the 
newly turned-up earth, the positions of the redoubts, and by 
the numerous tents that dotted the field for "many a rood 
around," and shone dimly amid the night haze, the encamp- 
ments of the British and German reinforcements, and, in 
short, performed their perilous duty without the slightest 



"Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 447 

discovery ; and pleased, prepared to retire, just as chanticleer, 
from a neighboring farmhouse, was "bidding salutation to 
the morn." 

The adventurous party reached a small eminence, at some 
distance from the British camp, and commandino* an exten- 
sive prospect over the adjoining country. Here Moi-gan 
halted, to give his men a little rest, before taking up\is 
line of march for the American outposts. Scarcely liad they 
thrown themselves on the grass, when they perceived, issuing 
from the enemy's advanced pickets, a body of horse, com- 
manded by an officer, and proceeding along the road that 
led directly by the spot where the riflemen had halted. Xo 
spot could be better chosen for an ambuscade, for there were 
rocks and ravines, and also scrubby oaks, that grew thickly 
on the eminence by which the roacl we have just mentioned, 
passed, at not exceeding a hundred yards. 

" Down, boys, down," cried Morgan, as the horse approached, 
nor did the clansmen of the Black Rhoderick, disappear more 
promptly amid their native heather, than did Morgan's 
woodsmen in the present instance, each to his tree or rock. 
" Lie close there, my lads, till we see what these fellows are 
about." 

Meantime, the horsemen had gained the hight, and the 
officer, dropping the rein on his charger's neck, with a spy- 
glass reconnoitered the American lines. The troops closed 
up their files, and were either cherishing the noble animals 
they rode, adjusting their equipments, or gazing upon tlie 
surrounding scenery, now fast brightening in the beams of a 
rising sun. 

Morgan looked at Long, and Long upon his superior, 
while the riflemen, with panting chests and sparkling eyes, 
were only awaiting the signal from their ofiicers, " to let the 
ruin fly." 

At length, the martial ardor of Morgan overcame his 
prudence and sense of military subordination. Forgetful of 
consequences, reckless of everything but liis enemy, now 
within his grasp, he waved his hand, and loud and sharp 
rang the report of the rifles amid the surrounding echoes. 
At pointblank distance, the certain and deadly aim of the 
Hunting Shirts of the revolutionary army is too well known 
to history to need remark at this time of day. In this 



448 '• Sam : '*' or, the Histoky of MYbiERY. 

instance we have to record, the effects of the fire of the 
riflemen were tremendous. Of the horsemen, some had 
fallen to rise no more, while their liberated chargers rushed 
wildly over the adjoining plain ; others wounded, but entangled 
with their stirrups, were dragged by the furious animals 
expiringly along ; while the very few who were unscathed, 
spurred hard to regain the shelter of the British lines. 

While the smoke yet canopied the scene of slaughter, and 
the picturesque forms of the woodsmen appeared among the 
foliage, as they were reloading their pieces, the colossal 
figure of Morgan stood apart. He seemed the very genius 
of w^ar, as gloomily he contemplated the havoc his order 
had made. He spoke not, he moved not, but looked as one 
absorbed in an intensity of thought. The martial shout, 
with which he was wont to cheer his comrades in the hour 
of combat, was hushed, the shell ^ from which he had blown 
full many a note of battle and of triumph, on the fields of 
Saratoga, hung idly by his side ; no order was given to spoil 
the slain ; the arms and equipments for which there was 
always a bounty from Congress, the shirts, for which there 
was so much need in that, the sorest period of our country's 
privation, all, all were abandoned, as with an abstracted air, 
and a voice struggling for utterance, Morgan suddenly turn- 
ing to his captain, exclaimed: " Long, to the camp, march." 
The favorite captain obeyed, the riflemen with trailed arms 
fell into file, and Long and his party soon disappeared, but 
not before the hardy fellows had exchanged opinions on the 
strange termination of the late affair. And they agreed, 
nem. con., that their colonel was tricked, (conjured.) or 
assuredly, after such a fire as they had just given the enemy, 
such an emptying of saddles, and such a squandering of the 
troopers, he would not have ordered his poor rifle boys from 
the field, without so much as a few shirts or pairs of stockings 

* Morgan's riflemen were generally in the advance, skirmishing with 
the light troops of the enemy, or annoying his flanks ; the regiment was 
thus much divided into detachments, and dispersed over a very wide field 
of action. Morgan was in the habit of using a conch-shell frequently, 
during the heat of the battle, with which he would blow a loud and war- 
like blast. This, he said, was to inform his boys that he was still alive, 
and from many parts of the field was beholding their prowess ; and like 
the celebrated sea-warrior of another hemisphere's last signal, was 
expecting that " every man would do his duty." 



*' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 449 

being divided among them. "Yes/' said a tall, lean, and 
swarthy-looking fellow, an Indian hunter, from the frontier, 
as he carefully placed his moccasined feet in the footprints 
of his file leader, " Yes, my lads, it stands to reason, our 
colonel is tricked.'^ 

Morgan followed slowly on the trail of his men. The full 
force of his military guilt had rushed upon his mind, even 
before the reports of his rifles had ceased to echo in the 
neighboring forests. He became more and more convinced 
of the enormity of his offense, as with dull and measured 
strides, he pursued his solitary way, and thus he soliloquized : 

" AYell, Daniel Morgan, you have done for yourself. Broke, 
sir, broke to a certainty. You may go home, sir, to the 
plow ; your sword will be of no further use to you. Broke, 
sir, nothing can save you ; and there is an end of Colonel 
Morgan. Fool, fool — by a single act of madness, tlius to 
destroy the earnings of so many toils, and many a hard- 
fought battle. You are broke, sir, and there is an end of 
Colonel Morgan. '^ 

To disturb this reverie, there suddenly appeared at full 
speed, the aid-de-camp, the Mercury of the field, who, reining 
up, accosted the colonel with, " I am ordered. Colonel Morgan, 
to ascertain whether the firing just now heard, proceeded from 
your detachment. '^ " It did sir," replied Morgan, sourly. 
"Then, colonel," continued the aid, "I am further ordered 
to require your immediate attendance upon his excellency, 
who is approaching." Morgan bowed, and the aid, wheeling 
his charger, galloped back to rejoin his chief. 

The gleams of the morning sun upon the sabres of the 
horse guard, announced the arrival of the dreaded comman- 
der — that being who inspired with a degree of awe, every 
one who approached him. With a stern, yet dignified compo- 
sure, Washington addressed the military culprit : "Can it be 
possible, Colonel Morgan, that my aid-de-camp has informed 
me aright? Can it be possible, after the orders you re- 
ceived last evening, that the firing we have heard proceeded 
from your detachment? Surely, sir, my orders were so 
explicit as not to be easily misunderstood." Morgan was 
brave, but it has been often, and justly too, observed, that 
the man never was born of a woman, who could approach the 
o-reat Washino-ton, and not feel a degree of awe and veneration 
38 



450 " Sam: '' or, the History of Mystery. 

for his presence. Morgan quailed for a moment before 
the stern, yet just displeasure of his chief, till arousing all 
his energies to the effort, he uncovered and replied : " Your 
excellency's orders were perfectly well understood, and agree- 
ably to the same, I proceeded with a select party to reconnoiter 
the enemy's lines by night. We succeeded even beyond our 
expectations, and I was returning to headquarters to make 
my report, when, having halted a few minutes to rest the 
men, we discovered a party of horse coming out from the 
enemy's lines. They came up immediately to the spot where 
we lay concealed in the brushwood. There they halted, and 
gathered up together like a flock of partridges, affording me 
so tempting an opportunity of annoying my enemy, that, 
may it please your excellency, flesh and blood could not 
refrain." 

On this rough, yet frank, bold, and manly explanation, a 
smile was observed to pass over the countenances of several 
of the general's suite. The chief remained unmoved, when, 
waving his hand, he continued : " Colonel Morgan, you will 
retire to your quarters, there to await further orders." Mor- 
gan bowed, and the military cortege rode on to the inspection 
of the outposts. 

Arrived at his quarters, Morgan threw himself upon his 
hard couch, and gave himself up to reflections upon the 
events which had so lately and so rapidly succeeded each 
other. He was aware that he had sinned past all hopes of 
forgiveness. Within twenty-four hours he had fallen from 
the command of a regiment, and being an especial favorite 
with the general, to be, wliat ? — a disgraced and broken sol- 
dier. Condemned to retire from scenes of glory, the darling 
passions of his heart — forever to abandon the" "fair fields of 
fighting men," and in obscurity to drag out the remnant of a 
wretched existence, neglected and forgotten. And then his 
rank, so hardly, so nobly won, with all his " blushing honors," 
acquired in the march across the frozen wilderness of the 
Kennebec, the storming of the lower town, and the gallant 
and glorious combats of Saratoga. 

The hours dragged gloomily away : night came, but with 
it no rest for the troubled spirit of poor Morgan. The drums 
and fifes merrily sounded the soldier's dawn, and the sun 
arose, giving " promise of a good day." And to many withiu 



" Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 451 

the circuit of tliat widely-extended camp, did its genial beams 
give hope, and joy, and gladness, while it cheered not with 
a single ray the despairing leader of the woodsmen. 

About ten o'clock, the orderly on duty reported the arrival 
of an officer of the staff, from headquarters, and Lieutenant 
Colonel Hamilton, the favorite aid of the commander-in-chief, 
entered the markee. "Be seated," said Morgan; "I know 
your errand, so be short, my dear felh_)w, and put me out of 
my misery at once. I know that I am arrested; 'tis a matter 
of course. Well, there is my sword; but surely, his excel- 
lency honors me, indeed, in these last moments of my military 
existence, when he sends for my sword by his favorite aid, 
and my most esteemed friend. Ah, my dear Hamilton, if 
you knew what I had suffered since the cursed horse came 
out to tempt me to ruin." 

Hamilton, about whose strikingly-intelligent countenance 
there always lurked a playful smile, now observed: " Colonel 
Morgan, his excellency has ordered me to — " " I knew it," 
interrupted Morgan, " to bid me prepare for trial ! Guilty, 
sir, guilty past all doubt. But then, (recollecting himself,) 
perhaps my services might plead — nonsense ; against the 
disobedience of a positive order? no, no, it is all over with 
me ; Hamilton, there is an end of your old friend and of 
Colonel Morgan." The agonized spirit of our hero then 
mounted a pitch of enthusiasm, as he exclaimed: "But my 
country will remember my services, and the British and 
Hessians will remember me too, for though I may be far 
away, my brave comrades will do their duty, and Morgan's 
riflemen be, as they always have been, a terror to the 
enemy." 

The noble, the generous-souled Hamilton could no longer 
bear to witness the struggles of the brave unfortunate ; he 
called out : " Hear me, my dear colonel, only promise to hear 
me for one moment, and I will tell you all." " Go on, sir," 
replied Morgan, despairingly, "goon." *: Then," continued 
the aid-de-camp, "you must know tliat the commanders of 
regiments dine with his excellency to-day." " ^\ hat of that V 
again interrupted Morgan; "what has that to do with me, a 
prisoner, and — " " No, no," exclaimed Hamilton, " no pris- 
oner ; a once offending, but now forgiven soldier ; my orders 
are to invite vou to dine with his excellency to-day at three 



452 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

o'clock, precisely. Yes, my brave and good friend, Colonel 
Morgan, you still are, and likely long to be, the valued and 
famed commander of the rifle regiment." 

Morgan sprang from the camp-bed on which he was sitting, 
and seized the hand of the little oTeat man in his ffiant 
grasp, wrung and wrung until the aid-de-camp literally 
struggled to get free, then exclaimed, "Am I in my senses? 
but I know you, Hamilton — you are too noble a fellow to 
sport with the feelings of an old soldier." Hamilton assured 
his friend that all was true, and, kissing his hand as he 
mounted his horse, bade the now delighted colonel remember 
three o'clock, and to be careful not to disobey a second time, 
galloped to the headquarters. 

Morgan entered the pavilion of the commander in chief as 
it was fast filling with officers, all of whom, after paying their 
respects to the general, filed ofl:* to give a cordial squeeze of 
the hand to the commander of the rifle regiment, and to 
whisper in his ear words of congratulation. The cloth 
removed, Washington bade his guests fill their glasses, and 
gave his only, his unvarying toast — the toast of the days of 
trial, the toast of the evening of his ''time-honored" life, 
amid the shades of Mount Vernon — "All our friends." Then, 
with his usual old-fashioned politeness, he drank to each 
guest by name. AVhen he came to " Colonel Morgan, your 
good health, sir," a thrill ran through the manly frame of 
the gratified and again favorite soldier, while every eye in 
the pavilion was turned upon him. At an early hour the 
company broke up, and Morgan had a perfect escort of officers 
to accompany him to his quarters, all anxious to congratulate 
him upon his happy restoration to rank and favor, all pleased 
to assure him of their esteem for his person and services. 

And often in his after-life did Morgan reason upon the 
events which we have transmitted to Americans and their 
posterity, and he would say, "What could the unusual clem- 
ency of the commander-in-chief towards so insubordinate a 
soldier as I was. mean ? Was it that my attackins; mv enemv 
wherever I could find him, and the attack being crowned with 
success, should plead in bar of the disobedience of a positive 
order? Certainly not. Was it that Washington well knew 
I loved, nav. adored him above all human beings ? That 
knowledge would not have weighed a feather in the scale of 



** Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 453 

his military justice. In short, the whole affuir is explained 
in five words: It was my first offense." 

The clemency of Wasliington to the first offense, preserved 
to the army of the revolution one of its most valued and 
effective soldiers, and had its reward in little more than two 
years from the date of our narrative, when Brigadier General 
Morgan consummated his own fame, and shed an undying 
lustre on the arms of his country, by the glorious and ever- 
memorable victory of the Cowpens. 

Nearly twenty years more had rolled away, and our hero, 
like most of his companions, had beaten his sword into a 
plowshare, and was enjoying, in the midst of a domestic circle, 
the evening of a varied and eventful life. When advanced 
in years, and infirm. Major General Morgan was called to the 
supreme legislature of his country, as a representative from 
the State of Virginia. It was at this period that the author 
of these memoirs had the honor and happiness of an interview' 
with the old general, which lasted for several days. And the 
veteran was most kind and communicative to one, who, hailing 
from the immediate family of the venerated chief, found a 
ready and warm welcome to the heart of Morgan. And 
many and most touching reminiscences of the days of trial 
were related by the once famed leader of the woodsmen, which 
wpre eao^erly devoured and carefullv treasured bv their 
youthful and delighted listener, in a memory of no ordinary 
power. 

And it was there the unlettered Morgan, a man bred amid 
the scenes of danger and hardihood that distinguished the 
frontier warfare, with little book knowledge, but gifted by 
nature with a strong and discriminating mind, paid to the 
fame and memory of the father of our country, a more just, 
more magnificent tribute than, in our humble judgment, has 
emanated from the thousand and one efforts of the best and 
brightest genuises of the age. General Morgan spoke of the 
necessity of Washington to the army of the revolution, and 
the success of the struggle for independence. He said. '• We 
had officers of great military talents, as, for instance. Greene 
and others ; we had officers of the most consummate courage 
and enterprising spirit, as, for instance, Wayne and others. 
One was yet necessary, to guide, direct, and animate the whole, 



454 ''Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

and it pleased Almiglity God to send that one in the person 
of George Washington." 

The modern tories, to whom we alluded in introducing 
this fine sketch, will find something also, in the subjoined 
papers to freshen their memories, in regard to who were most 
justly n^garded as tories of the olden time : — 

BRITISH IN PHILADELPHIA. 

A mucli-valued friend has placed in the hands of the editor, 
a large volume of papers, containing the correspondence of 
Brigadier-General Lacey, of Pennsylvania, who commanded 
the Militia stationed on the east bank of the Schuylkill, to 
watch the motions of the enemy, and prevent his obtaining 
supplies. 

General Lacey's orders to his scouting parties, March 9, 
1778 : — " If your parties should meet with any people going 
to market, or any persons whatever going to the city, and 
they endeavor to make their escape, you will order your men 
to hre upon the villains. You will leave such on the roads — 
their bodies and their marketing Ivino* too;ether. This I 
wish you to execute on the first offenders you meet, that they 
may be a warning to others." 

General Washington to General Lacey, dated at Valley 
Forge, 20th March, 1778: — Sunday next being the time on 
which the Quakers hold one of their general meetings, a 
number of that society will probably be attempting to go into 
Philadelphia. This is an intercourse that we should by all 
means endeavor to interrupt, as the plans settled at these 
meetings are of the most pernicious tendency."' I would 

* I was in great doubt — whether I ought to publish or suppress this let- 
ler — bat, on reflection, have thought best to insert it. It must be admitted 
that a great majority of the Quakers in Pennsylvania, were " well inclined" 
to the British, and some of them went gi-eat lengths out of the rules of 
their profession, to aid and comfort the enemy of their country; others by 
adhering to those rules and refusing to take any part in the contest, even 
by the payment of taxes, were improperly suspected of disaffection, when 
in fact they were only neutral, refusing to have anything to do with the 
war; a few, however, laid aside their testimony against fighting, and con- 
tended gallantly for freedom. Persons of this religious persuasion in some 
other States, were sincerely attached to the cause of Independence, and 



•* Sam :'' or, the History of Mystery. 455 

therefore have you dispose of your parties in such a manner 
as will most probably fall in with those people, and if you 
should, and any of them should be mounted on horses lit for 
draught, or the service of light dragoons, I desire they may 
be taken from them, and sent over to the quarter-master- 
general. Any such are not to be considered as the property 
of the parties who may seize them, as in other cases. Com- 
municate the above orders to any of the officers who may 
command scouting parties on your side of the Schuylkill.'' 

[General Lacey, in reply, says he had ordered out his 
horse to stop the Quakers, with orders, " if they refuse to 
stop when hailed, to fire into them, and leave their bodies 
lying in the road.''] 

This is the commentary of Niles, of the old Register, who 
published this correspondence nearly thirty-five years ago, and 
for the first time, but wo would beg leave to add, as a com- 
ment upon his apology, the following extract from the speech 
of a prominent Eevolutionary leader, upon the floor of the 
Continental Congress. It is taken from his own columns : — 

I have excluded those from the privileges of free white 
inhabitants in the several States, who refuse to take up arms 
in defense of the confederacy — a measure, in my opinion, 
perfectly just. It is said, example before precept. Let the 
Quakers take shelter under any text in Scripture they 
please — the best they can find is but a far-fetched implica- 
tion in their favor. However, had their precept been in more 
positive terms, I think I have an example at hand, capable 
of driving them from such a cover. AYe read that " Jesus 
went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold 
and bought in the temple, and overturned the tables of 
the money-changers." Here we see the arm of the flesh 
raised up, and a degree of hostile violence exercised, sufii- 
cient to the end in view. And shall it be said, violence 
is not justifiable ? Did not God command Moses to num- 
ber "all that were able to go forth in war, in Israel?'' 

did all they consistently could do to assist the whigs. A stoppage of the 
intercourse with Philadelphia, at the time, was indubitably necessary and 
proper— but General Washington was misinformed. I apprehen<l, when 
he spoke of the " plans " settled at the " meetings " of the Quakers— what- 
ever thev may have done as indiriduals, their ''meetings'' must have passed 
without "'the adoption of any plans of a political nature— for such things 
are not suffered to be mentioned in them. 



456 ''Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 

Did not Moses, by tlie Divine order, send twelve thousand 
men to cut off the Midianites. And, although " they slew all 
the males," were they not reprehended for having '• saved 
all the women alive ?" Did not the Almighty command tlie 
children of Israel, that when they had passed into Canaan 
" then they should drive out all the inhabitants of the land 
from before them ?" Did not Moses direct that when the 
people were " come nigh unto the battle,'' the priests should 
encourao-e them, declarino; that the Lord their God was with 
them " io fight for them against their enemies?" And yet 
the Quakers have sagaciously found out a few words which, 
by implication, they contend restrain from doing nmv, what 
God then commanded as just. The grand principles of moral 
rectitude are eternal. Dare the Quakers contend that the 
myriads who have drawn the sword since the commencement 
of the Christian era, are damned for having done so? And 
unless they maintain this position, they seem to have no 
reasonable excuse for their creed and conduct. They seem 
to have forgot that it is written " how hardly shall they that 
have riches enter into kingdom of God !" Are there any 
people on the face of the earth more diligent after riches 
than the Quakers? We, in this time of calamity, know it 
to our cost. AYithout doubt, there are many valuable men 
of that sect ; men of that jiersuasion are very good citizens 
in time of peace, but it is their principle in time of war I 
condemn. Is there a Quaker who will not bring his action 
for trespass? Is not this an opposition to force? Have they 
forgot their principles of meekness and non-resistance ? The 
great Lord Lyttleton, in his Dialogues of the Dead, tells us 
"it is blasphemy to say that any folly could come from the 
fountain of wisdom. AYhatever is inconsistent with the great 
laws of nature, and with the necessary state of human 
society, cannot be inspired by the Divinity. Self-defense is 
as necessary to nations as to men. And shall men particu- 
larly have a right which nations have not ? True religion 
is the perfection of reason. Fanaticism is the disgrace, the 
destruction of reason." Than all this, nothing could be 
more just, certain, and evident. Can those men reasonably 
claim an equal participation in civil rights, who, under any 
pretence whatsoever, will not assist in defending them? 
Shall there be a people maintained in the possession of their 



'' Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 457 

riches by the blood and labor of other men ? Are not the 
Quakers, some few excepted, the most inveterate enemies to 
the independence of America ? Have they not openly taken 
part with those in arms against us? I consider them not 
only as a dead weight upon our hands, but as a dangerous 
body in our bosom, and I would, therefore, gladly be rid of 
them. I almost wish to "drive out all such inhabitants of 
the land from before us." The Canaanites knew not God. 
But the Quakers say they know him ; and yet, according to 
the idea of Lord Lyttleton, would have gross folly and injus- 
tice to proceed from the fountain of wisdom and equity. I 
entertain these sentiments with a conscience perfectly at ease 
on this point. If such treatment shall be termed persecu- 
tion, the conscientious Quakers can never take it amiss, when 
they recollect it is "blessed are they that are persecuted for 
Christ's sake." I do not consider this as such a persecution. 
But if they should, can they be displeased at being placed 
in a situation to be blessed ? And I would lay it down as a 
truth, that whoever of that sect should be offended at such 
treatment, would deserve to be expelled from our society, as 
the buyers, sellers, and money-changers were cast out of the 
temple. I am not afraid of any resentment, when it is my 
duty to act in behalf of the rights and interests of America. 
I trust I fully demonstrated this resolution when, on the 
25th of April, 1776, I had the honor, in the supreme seat 
of justice, to make the first public declaration in America, 
that my countrymen owed no allegiance to the king of Great 
Britain. 



39 



CHAPTER XL. 

The Treaty with France — The progress of the War, North and South — The 
Cowpens — Yorktown — Surrender of Cornwallis — Letter from General 
Washington. 

We will now proceed with a rapid summary of the con- 
cluding: events of the great war. 

The important treaties with France, of commerce and 
defensive alliance, which had been so long and eagerly sought 
• for, were the first events of consequence which now ensued. 
The importance of these treaties, however, except so far as 
they finally served to strengthen our now rapidly declining 
financial credit, the historian of '' Sam" tliinks to have been 
habitually overrated by local and provincial historians : seeing 
that the very basis of their formation was plainly avowed 
to rest upon the fact, that he had already exhibited his full 
ability to take care of himself. That he had already 
demonstrated himself, by virtue of his mighty thews and 
sinews, to be the master of his own destiny, aftbrded, no 
doubt, to Johnny Crapeaud, a mighty opportunity for a grand 
display of magnanimity, in helping him to a place of 
national recognition, in which no leaven of ancient auimosity 
was, of course, mingled, to disflavor tbe generosity of the 
patronage ! 

That France had hated England from the beginning, v-as 
necessarily, to the modern foes of " Sam," no reason why 
France loved America less ! Her disinteresteduess in send- 
ing us the cast-of military adventurers of Europe, who 
crowded her capital, and of whom she was only too happy t() 
be rid, and Avho only niauaged to annoy Congress and Wash- 
ington, with endless importunities for their precious services, 



" Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 459 

which were never rendered, except in second rate skirmishes, 
although they had unanimously consented to fight his battles 
for him, in the subordinate positions of prepaid and overpaid 
Generals, Brigadiers, etc ! 

Be this as it may, for these evidences of disinterestedness, 
" Sam " ]ias, however, for seventy-nine years since, shown 
himself duly or unduly, so scrupulously grateful, as to have 
allowed to all foreigners greater franchises than he has ever 
permitted even to his own children. He has given them 
most of his offices, set them to teaching most of his schools, 
with professorships and gratuities of every imaginable grade 
and class, and all because he had three or four honorable 
and upright servitors among them, during the dark hours 
of his tribulation. 

But it unluckily appears, that this excessive gratitude on 
the part of '' Sam," instead of covering them with humility, 
and rendering them grateful for largess bestowed with a 
magnanimous hand, has filled them with the insolence which 
has always accompanied the reaction of servility, and caused 
them to assume the airs of masters, and even sovereign dic- 
tators. 

But " Sam " has lost patience at last, and his mighty arm 
is now raised over them in wrath, and with one haughty 
finger pointing at the pillory, he brandishes aloft the whips 
of his electric threatenings above their cowering backs, and 
gives them to understand, in a voice that shakes the conti- 
nent, "hence, to your kennels, hounds I I am master here! 
disorganize rs, tories, insolent and ungrateful presumers upon 
a precious magnanimity, which you were too much born-serfs 
in your own pageant-saddled and king-ridden lands to com- 
prehend, learn to respect my own born children, and know 
your places ! Know that ye are but fugitive-slaves, among 
a people of sovereign freemen, and only tolerated on good 
behavior, until a sufficient period of probation has shown you 
to be worthy the privileges of citizenship !" Yes, the time 
has come for the peremptory rebuke of this presuming 
arrogance, against the annoyance of which, even during this 
early period of the Revolution, the lofty and patient Wash- 
ington found it necessary to write several complaining- 
letters to the Continental Congress, beseeching tliem to 
cease giving any further encouragements to these clamorous 



460 '' Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 

and greedy cormorants, who incessantly beset his marquee, 
and worried him with their unheard of demands ! 

So great had this evil at this time become, that Congress 
thought it necessary to recall their foolish and imprudent 
agent at Paris, Dean, and force him to give a stern account 
of his conduct, for having sent over such a swarm of impu- 
dent beggars, to assail every department of the Goverment 
with their importunate clamors. And the example of such 
beggar lazzaroni as they then complained of, has been very 
successfully followed up to the present day. 

But it is time for us to return to our proposed hasty out- 
line. The French fleet, under D'Estaing, had now arrived. 
The British found it necessary to withdraw from Philadelphia. 
When the evacuation became known to the American army, 
Washington determined upon immediate pursuit ; and every 
one will remember the indecisive battle of Monmouth which 
followed, and the either treacherous or dastardly conduct 
on the field, of Lee, whom Washington, in his irritation, 
impetuously denounced as a coward, when he met him in 
full retreat, with the whole American advance. 

The conduct of Lee has been much discussed, pro and corit 
but we think that no one who will take the trouble to 
remember his precedents, will for a moment delude himself 
with the supposition that Lee's conduct was the result of 
cowardice. Yet we have always thought he ought to have 
been court-martialed and cashiered on the spot, or else strung 
as high as Arnold would have been hung, had he been 
caught : for his conduct was clearly the result of personal 
jealousy of Washington, and a desire to defeat a movement 
which he had opposed in a council of war, which preceded the 
pursuit. 

Had he succeeded in effecting this "masterly inactive" 
policy of his, and the British army been permitted to escape 
without harrassment or loss, it would, in the then existing 
conditions of bitter jealousy and intrigue against Washing- 
ton, have greatly shocked the as yet unshaken confidence 
of the sagacious Congress, which carefully overlooked, with 
penetrating vision, the whole field of operations in their 
favorite servant and general, Washington ; in which event, 
Master Lee, who was second in command, might have natur- 
ally looked forward to the eagle plume of chieftainship. 



" Sam:" or, the History op Mystery. 461 

This Congress affords, perhaps, the only instance in which 
a legislative body has, with just discrimination, supervised 
the operations of a long and perilous war, without rashly 
entrusting too great powers to its generals, or embarrassing 
them with impertinent interference. Such bodies usually 
fail in one extreme or the other. 

But the hand of '• Sam," under Grod, was over this body, 
than whom, a wiser and nobler assemblage history does not 
record to have ever assembled before, for executive purposes. 

The Indian wars, which now ravaged the Western and 
Northern Frontiers, now resulted in the savage massacre of 
Wyoming, which Avas promptly followed by a proportionate 
retribution against our quondam friends, the Six Nations, 
and the prompt return of several tribes to their ancient alle- 
giance. The war, then transferred to the South, was attended 
with serious calamities to our cause. Savannah taken, and 
Georgia subdued, North and South Carolina were reduced to 
extremities. 

In the meantime, King's Ferry, on the Hudson, was occu- 
pied by the British ; Stoney Point surprised ; and Spain takes 
a hand against America in the war — and John Paul Jones, 
the Americanized Scotchman, performed Herculean prodigies 
of valor on the sea. Charleston soon after capitulated, and 
with it came the submission of the State to British rule. 

A savage partisan warfare now arose, and the gallants 
Marion and Sumpter, began to be heard of, through the 
indomitable prowess of their surprising feats. The disastrous 
rout at Camden, and the treachery of Arnold, witli the trial 
and execution of Andre, followed in close succession. The 
gallant Greene, appointed to the command in the south, to 
take the place of the renegade Gates, soon caused a change 
in the aspect of affairs in this direction. 

The sharp and close fighting of our backwoods' men at 
the battle of King's Mountain, somewhat revived the spirits 
of the South. A quarrel between Great Britain and Holland, 
which occurred about this time, tended somewliat to the em- 
barrassment of the former. 

The financial embarrassments and depreciation of Contin- 
ental currency, had now about reached its climax, and the 
disaffection of the army, and the difficulty of keeping it 



462 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

together, became every day more great. Several regiments 
rebelled, and many left the field entirely, for want of pay. 

The battle of the " Cowpens,'' on the borders of the Caro- 
linas, in which the redoubtable conch-shell of the hurley 
Morgan, carried terror to the craven heart of the bloody 
Tarleton, and set the lordly Cornwallis on his " pegs," into 
the hasty trot of retreat, at the cost of a great loss of stores 
and baggage — roused up the ever-vigilant Greene : and 
although Cornwallis had been discreetly compelled to reduce 
his whole army to the condition of a light infantry corps, 
for the purpose of pursuing the discreet retreat of the vic- 
torious Morgan, Greene was enabled to effect an immediate 
junction with Morgan, who had managed to effect his escape, 
owing to the sudden rise of waters which prevented the pur- 
suit of his enemies. 

The battle of Gilford Court-house, which now follows, and 
may be called a drawn battle, (though attended with great 
loss to the British, and compelling Cornwallis to retire,) was 
very inspiriting to our cause. 

Green was everywhere successful. The petulant and irrit- 
able D'Estaing had in the meantime returned with his fleet 
from the West Indies. Cornwallis, who had finally reached 
Virginia on his fourth retreat, found himself rapidly involved 
in the inextricable meshes, from which he never finally 
escaped. 

The details of the subsequent movements of Washington 
and Greene, one moving suddenly from the north and the 
other from the south, are too well known to require any 
greater detail here. It is sufficient that now came the great 
climax of our struggle. Washington, Greene, and the Count 
De Grasse, who had now assumed the command of the French 
force, by a long concerted movement, as we shall proceed to 
show, now unexpectedly closed upon the army of the British 
lord, who found himself, to his great dismay, beleaguered 
from all sides, in the paltry village of Yorktown. 

As our purpose has been to add new light to old and well- 
known facts, rather than to follow slavishly old records of 
familiar details, we append the following ancient and au- 
thentic documents concerning this great event. We give 
first the following document, containing a private letter 
written by Washington in 1778. 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 463 

^^ It has been controverted, ivhether the capture of Qmeml 
OornwaUis was the result of a plan preconcerted hetiveen Gen- 
eral Washington and Count Be Grasse: or rather, tvhcther the 
arrival of the Count in the Chesapeake, was predetermined and 
expected by General Washington, and consequently all the prepa- 
rations to attack New York, a mere finesse to deceive the enemy : 
or ivhether the real intention was against Neiv York, and the 
siege of Yorktown planned upon the unexpected arrival of the 
French fleet, in the Bay. The folloiving letter ivill set the matter 
in its true light. — [Carey^s Museum. 

MouxT Verxox, July 31, 1788. 
Sir — I duly received your letter of the 14tli inst., and can 
only answer you briefly, and generally from memory — tliat 
a combined operation of the land and naval forces of France, 
in America, for the year 1781, was preconcerted the year 
before ; that the point of attack was not absolutely agreed 
upon,* because it could not be foreknown where the enemy 
would be most susceptible of impression ; and because we 
(having the command of the water, with suthcient means of 
conveyance) could transport ourselves to any spot with tlie 
greatest celerity ; that it was determined by me, nearly 
twelve months beforehand, at all hazards, to give out, and 
cause it to be believed, by the highest military, as well as 
civil officers, that New York was the destined place of attack, 
for the important purpose of inducing the Eastern and Middle 
States to make greater exertions in furnishing specific sup- 
plies, than they otherwise would have done, as well as for 
the interesting purpose of rendering the enemy less prepared 
elsewhere ; that, by these means, and these alone, artillery, 
boats, stores, and provisions, were in seasonable preparation 
to move with the utmost rapidity to any part of the conti- 
nent ; for the difficulty consisted more in providing, than 
knowing how to apply the military apparatus. That, before the 
arrival of the Count De Grasse, it was the fixed determina- 
tion to strike the enemy in the most vulnerable quarter, so as to 
insure success with moral certainty, as our atfairs were then 
in the most ominous train imaoinable ; that New York was 



"Because it would be easy for Vount De Grasse in good time before his 
departure from tiie West Indies, to give notice, by express, at what place 
he could most conveniently first touch, to receive advice. 



464 '' Sam: ^' or, the History of Mystery. 

thought to he heyond our efforts, and consequently, that the 
only hesitation that remained, was hetween an attack upon 
the British army in Virginia, and that in Charleston ; and 
finally, that, by the intervention of several communications, 
and some incidents which can not he detailed in a letter, the 
hostile post in Virginia, from being a provisional and strongly 
expected, became the definitive and certain object of the campaign. 

I only add, that it never was in contemplation to attack 
New York, unless the garrison should first have been so far 
degarnished, to carry on the Southern operations, as to render 
our success in the siege of that place, as infallible as any 
future military event can ever be. For I repeat it, and dwell 
upon it again, some splendid advantage (whether upon a 
larger or smaller scale was almost immaterial) was so essen- 
tially necessary, to revive the expiring hope and languid 
exertions of the country, at the crisis in question, that I never 
would have consented to embark in any enterprise, wherein, 
from the most rational plan and accurate calculation, the 
favorable issue should not have appeared to my view as a ray 
of light. The failure of an attempt against the posts of the 
enemy, could, in no other possible situation during the war, 
have been so fatal to our cause. 

That much trouble was taken, and finesse used, to mis- 
guide and bewilder Sir Henry Clinton, in regard to the real 
object, by fictitious communications, as well as by making a 
deceptive provision of ovens, forage, and boats in the neigh- 
borhood, is certain ; nor were less pains taken to deceive our 
own army ; for I always conceived Avhere the imposition does 
not completely take place at home, it would never sufficiently 
succeed abroad. 

Your desire of obtaining truth is very laudable ; I wish I 
had more leisure to gratify it, as I am equally solicitous the 
undiso'uised verity should be known. Many circumstances 
will unavoidably be misconceived and misrepresented. Not- 
withstanding most of the papers which may properly be 
deemed oificial, are preserved, yet the knowledge of innu- 
merable things of a more delicate and secret nature, is con- 
fined to the perishable remembrance of some few of the 
present generation. 

With esteem, I am, sir, your most obedient humble servant, 

George Washington. 



♦'Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 465 

We will now give a graphic account of the ceremonies 
attending the surrender of Yorktown. 

THE SURRENDER AT YORKTOWN. 

From tlie Richmond Compiler, of April 10, 1818. 

As every incident connected with our Revolutionary his- 
tory, is interesting to the great mass of the people, I shall 
solicit a niche in your paper, to answer an inquiry in a late 
Compiler, concerning the surrender of the British army, at 
Yorktown, Virginia ; and hope that your readers will experi- 
ence the same pleasure in reading the account, that I enjoy 
in the narration. 

"At two o'clock in the evening, October 19th, 1781, the 
British army, led by General O'Hara, marched out of its 
lines, with colors cased, and drums beating a British march. 

*' It will be seen in the sequel, that O'Hara, and not Corn- 
wallis, surrendered the British army to the allied forces of 
France and America. In this affair. Lord Cornwallis seemed 
to have lost all his former magnanimity and firmness of 
character — he sunk beneath the pressure of his misfortunes, 
and, for a moment, gave his soul up to chagrin and sorrow. 

" The road through which they marched, was lined with 
spectators, French and Americans. On one side, the com- 
mander-in-chief, surrounded by his suite and the American 
staffs, took his station ; on the other side, opposite to him, 
was the Count de Rochambeau, in like manner attended. 
The captive army approached, moving slowly in column, with 
grace and precision. 

*' Universal silence was observed amidst the vast concourse, 
and the utmost decency prevailed, exhibiting in demeanor, an 
awful sense of the vicissitudes of human life, mingled with 
commiseration for the unhappy. The head of the column 
approached the commander-in-chief; O'Hara, mistaking the 
circle, turned to that on his left, for the purpose of paying 
his respects to the commander-in-chief, and requesting fur- 
ther orders ; when quickly discovering his error, with embar- 
rassment in his countenance, he flew across the road, and 
advanced up to Washington, asked pardon for his mistake, 
apologized for the absence of Lord Coriiwallis, and begged to 
know his further pleasure. 



466 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

" The General, feeling his embarrassment, relieved it by 
referring him, with much politeness, to General Lincoln for 
his government. Returning to the head of the column, it 
again moved, under the guidance of Lincoln, to the field 
selected for the conclusion of the ceremony. 

" Every eye was turned, searching for the British com- 
mander-in-chief, anxious to look at a man, heretofore so much 
their dread. All were disappointed. 

" Cornwallis held himself hax^k from the humiliating scene ; 
obevino' sensations which his PTeat character ouscht to have 
stifled. He had been unfortunate, not from any false step, 
or deficiency of exertion on his part, but from the infatuated 
policy of his superior, and the united power of his enemy 
brought to bear upon him alone. There was nothing with 
which he could reproach himself ; there was nothing with 
which he could reproach his brave and faithful army ; why 
not then appear at its head in the day of misfortune, as he 
had always done in the day of triumph ? 

"The British general in this instance, deviated from his 
usual line of conduct, dimming the splendor of his long and 
brilliant career. 

" Thus ended the important co-operation of the allied 
forces. Great was the joy ditiused throughout our infant 
empire.'' 

I can not end this interesting detail, as recorded by Henry 
Lee, without giving you his panegyric on the father of our 
country : 

" This wide acclaim of joy and of confidence, as rare as 
sincere, sprung not only from the conviction that our signal 
success would bring in its train the blessings of peace, so 
wanted by our wasted country, and from the splendor with 
which it encircled our national name, but from the endearing 
reflection that the mighty exploit liad been achieved by our 
faithful, beloved Washington. We had seen him struggling 
throughout the war, with inferior force, against the best 
troops of England, assisted by her powerful navy : surrounded 
by difficulties, oppressed by want, never dismayed, never 
appalled, never despairing of the commonwealth. 

" We have seen him renouncing his fame as a soldier, his 
safety as a man, in his unalloyed love of country ; weakening 



" Sam : '^ or, the History of Mystery. 467 

his own immediate force to strengthen that of his lieu- 
tenants : submitting witli equanimity to his own subsequent 
^ inability to act, and rejoicing in their triumphs, because best 
calculated to uphold the great cause entrusted to his care ; 
at length, by one great and final exploit, under the benicrn 
influence of Providence, lifted to the pinnacle of glory, the 
reward of his toil, his sufferings, his patience, his heroism, 
and his virtue. Wonderful man ! rendering it difficult by 
his conduct througliout life, to decide whether he most excel- 
led in goodness or in greatness.'' 

Here also is a curious paper which illustrates the effect of 
the surrender of Cornwallis, given in the words of an eye- 
witness, a candid Englishman, who was an habitu^ of the 
British Court at the time of the arrival of the news : 



SURRENDER OF LORD CORNWALLIS. 
From Sir N. W. WraxalPs "Memoirs of his Own Time." 

November, 1781. During the whole month of Xovember 
the concurring accounts transmitted to government, enumer- 
ating Lord Cornwallis' embarrassments and the positions 
taken by the enemy, augmented the anxiety of the Cabinet. 
Lord George Germain, in particular, conscious that on the 
prosperous or adverse termination of that expedition, must 
hino-e the fate of the American contest, his own stav in office, 
as well as probably the duration of the ministry itself, felt, 
and even expressed to his friends, the strongest uneasiness 
on the subject. The meeting of Parliament, meanwliile, 
stood fixed for the 27th of November. On Sunday, the 2oth, 
about noon, official intelligence of the surrender of the Brit- 
ish forces at Yorktown, arrived from Falmouth, at Lord Ger- 
main's house in Pall Mall. Lord Walsingham, who, previous 
to his father. Sir William de Gray's elevation to the peerage, 
had been under secretary of state in that department, and 
who was selected to second the address in the House of Peers 
on the subsequent Tuesday, happened to be there when the 
messenger brought the news. Without communicating it 
to any person. Lord George, for the purpose of despatch, 
immediately got with him into a hackney-coach and drove to 



468 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

Lord Stormount^s residence in Portland Place. Having 
imparted to him the disastrous information, and taken him 
into the carriage, they instantly proceeded to the Chancellor's 
house, in Great Eussel Street, Bloomsbury, whom they found 
at home ; when, after a short consultation, they determined 
to lay it themselyes, in person, before Lord North. He had 
not receiyed any intimation of the eyent when they arrived 
at his door, in Downing Street, between one and two o'clock. 
The first minister's firmness, and even his presence of mind, 
gave way for a short time, under this awful disaster. I 
asked Lord George afterwards, how he took the communica- 
tion when made to him ? "As I would have taken a ball in 
my breast,^' replied Lord George. "For he opened his arms, 
exclaiming wildly, as he paced up and down the apartment 
during several minutes, ' O ! God ! it is all over I' Words 
which he repeated many times, under emotions of the deepest 
ao'itation and distress." 

When the first agitation of their minds had subsided, the 
four ministers discussed the question, whether or not it might 
be expedient to prorogue Parliament for a few days : but, as 
scarcely an interval of forty-eight hours remained before the 
appointed time of assembling, and, as many members of both 
houses were already either arrived in London, or on the road, 
that proposition was abandoned. It became, however, indis- 
pensable to alter, and almost to model anew the king's 
speech, which had already been drawn up, and completely 
prepared for delivery from the throne. This alteration was, 
therefore, made without delay ; and at the same time. Lord 
George Germain, as secretary for the American department, 
sent off a despatch to his majesty, who was then at Kew, 
acquainting him with the melancholy termination of Lord 
Cornwallis' expedition. Some hours having elapsed before 
these different, but necessary acts of business could take 
place, the ministers separated, and Lord George Germain 
repaired to his oflice in Whitehall. There he tbund a con- 
firmation of the intelligence, which arrived about two hours 
after the first communication ; having been transmitted from 
Dover, from which place it was forwarded to Calais with the 
Prench account of the same event. 

I dined on that day at Lord George's ; and though the 
information which had reached London in the course of the 



'' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 469 

morning', from two difiorent quarters, was of a nature not to 
admit of long concealment, vet it had not been communicated 
to me, nor to any individual of the company, as it mi.crht 
naturally have been, through the channel of common report, 
when I got to Pall Mall, between five and six o'clock. Lord 
Walsingham, who likewise dined there, was the only person 
present, except Lord George, who was acquainted with the 
fact. The party, nine in number, sat down to table. I 
thought the master of the house appeared serious, though 
he manifested no discompo^ire. Before the dinner was 
finished, one of his servants delivered him a letter, brouo^ht 
back from the messenger who had been despatched to the 
king. Lord George opened and perused it ; then lookino- at 
Lord Walsingham, to whom he exclusively directed his ob- 
servation, '-The king writes,^' said he, "just as he always 
does, except that I observe he has omitted to mark the hour 
and the minute of his writing, with his usual precision." 
This remark, though calculated to awaken some interest, 
excited no comment ; and while the ladies, Lord George's 
three daughters, remained in the room, we repressed our 
curiosity. But they had no sooner withdrawn, than Lord 
George, having acquainted us that from Paris information 
had just arrived of the old Count de Maurepas, first minister, 
lying at the point of death: "It would grieve me," said I 
" to finish my career, however far advanced in years, were 
I first minister of France, before I had witnessed the termi- 
nation of this great contest between England and America." 
" He has survived to see that event," replied Lord George, 
with some agitation. Utterly unsuspicious of the fact which 
had happened beyond the Atlantic, I conceived him to allude 
to the indecisive naval action fought at the mouth of the 
Chesapeake, early in the preceding month of September, 
between Admiral Graves and Count de Grasse : which, in its 
results, might prove most injurious to Lord Cornwallis. Under 
this impression, " my meaning," said I, " is that if I were 
the Count de Maurepas, I should wish to live long enough to 
behold the final issue of the war in Virginia." " He has 
survived to witness it completely," answered Lord George, 
" the army has surrendered, and you may peruse the parti- 
culars of the capitulation in that paper," taking at the same 
time one from his pocket, wliich he delivered into my hand, 



470 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

not without visible emotion. By his permission, I read it aloud, 
while the company listened in profound silence. We then 
discussed its contents, as it eftected the ministry'', the country 
and the war. It must be confessed that they were calculated 
to diffuse a gloom over the most convivial society, and that 
they opened a wide field for practical speculation. 

After perusing the account of Lord Cornwallis's surrender 
at Yorktown, it was impossible for all present not to feel a 
lively curiosity to know how the king had received the intel- 
ligence, as well as how he expressed himself in his note to 
Lord George Germain, on the first communication of so pain- 
ful an event. He gratified our wish by reading it to us, 
observing at the same time, that it did the highest honor to 
his Majesty's fortitude, firmness, and consistency of character. 
The words made an impression on my memory which the 
lapse of more than thirty years has not erased ; and I shall 
here communicate its tenor, as serving to show how that 
prince felt and wrote, under one of the most afflicting, as 
well as humiliatino' occurrences of his reia-n. The billet ran 
nearly to this effect : " I have received, with sentiments of the 
deepest concern, the communication which Lord George Ger- 
main has made me, of the unfortunate result of the opera- 
tions in Virginia. I particularly lament it, on account of the 
consequences connected with it, and the difficulties which it 
may produce in carrying on the public business, or in repair- 
ing such a misfortune. But I trust that neither Lord George 
Germain, nor any member of the cabinet, will suppose that 
it makes any alteration in those principles of my conduct 
which have directed me in past times, and which will always 
continue to animate me under every event, in the prosecution 
of the present contest." Not a sentiment of despondency or 
despair was to be found in the letter ; the very handwriting 
of which indicated composure of mind. Whatever opinion we 
may entertain relative to the practicability of reducing 
America, to obedience, by force of arms, at the end of 1781, 
we must admit that no sovereign could manifest more calm- 
ness, dignity, or self-command than George HI. displayed in 
this reply. 

Severely as the general effect of the blow received in Vir- 
ginia was felt throughout the nation, yet no immediate 
symptoms of ministerial dissolution, or even of Parliamentary 



'• Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 471 

defection became visible in either House. All the ani- 
mated invectives of Fox, aided by the contumelious irony of 
Burke, and sustained by the diguitied denunciations of Pitt, 
enlisted on the same side, made little apparent impression 
on their hearers, who seemed stupefied by tlie disastrous 
intelligence. Yet never, probably, at any period of our his- 
tory, was more indignant language used by the opposition, or 
supported by administration. In the ardor of his feelino-s at 
the recent calamity beyond the Atlantic, Fox not only accused 
ministers of being virtually in the pay of France, but men- 
aced them in the name of an undone people, who would 
speedily compel them to expiate their crimes on the public 
scaffold. Burke, with inconceivable warmth of colorino-, 
depicted the folly and impracticability of taxing America by 
force, or, as he described it, "shearing the wolf." The meta- 
phor was wonderfully appropriate, and scarcely admitted of 
denial. Pitt leveled his observations principally ao-ainst the 
cabinet, whom he represented as destitute of principle, wis- 
dom, or union of design. All three were sustained, and I 
had almost said, outdone, by Mr. Thomas Pitt, who, in terms 
of gloomy despondency, seemed to regard the situation of the 
country as scarcely admitting of a remedy, under such a Par- 
liament, such ministers, and such a sovereign. Lord Xorth, 
in this moment of general depression, found resources within 
himself — he scornfully repelled the insinuations of Fox, as 
deserving only contempt ; justified the principles of the war, 
which did not originate in a despotic wish to tyrannize over 
America, but from the desire of maintaining the constitutional 
authority of Parliament over the colonies ; deplored in com- 
mon with the opposition, the misfortunes which had marked 
the progress of the contest ; defied the threat of punishment ; 
and finally adjured the House not to aggravate the present 
calamity hj dejection or despair, but by imited exertion, to 
secure our national extrication. 

Such a picture of the consternation of the British Court, 
on hearino; this disastrous news of the io-nominious wreck of 
a second army in America, has never before been turnished 
to the public eye ; and significantly suggests how the stento- 
rian words of '• Sam," " I am master here !" rung porten- 
tously even at that early period, in the ears of the hoary and 
feeble despotisms of the Old World. 



472 " Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 

'' Sam '' was now a freeman ; and " youngling " as he was, 
the weight of his ponderous limbs had, even through the 
storm and crash of battle, made verge and room enough 
whereon to stretch themselves at ease on their " old couch 
of space." 



CHAPTER XLI. 

Trouble with the Indians — Tecumseh's League — General Harrison — Battles 
with the Indians — The British treat with them — Death of Tecumseh. 

John Bull seems to have had enough of " Sam," after the 
surrender of Cornwallis, to stay his stomach for the present. 
That portly gentleman would appear now to have come to 
the conclusion, that he had counted rather much upon the 
respect due to age, plethora, and gout, and to have become 
rapidly more philosophical, and more reasonable in his views, 
as to his own, and the rights of others. The future con- 
queror of Napoleon had been soundly thrashed by a big baby, 
to be sure, but what of that ? — many a kind, but uxorious 
father had been conquered by big babies before, through the 
excess of his parental feeling — and where was the shame ? 
It was all human nature, to say the most of it. Babies will 
be fractious, and fathers will be fond. And the more John 
reasoned, and philosophised, the more reasonable and philo- 
sophical he became, of course — until finally the bright idea 
illuminated his brain, through the fumy fog of after-dinner 
Port, and cigar, that it might be well to let the poor " young- 
ling" up, since he had beaten him with sufficient severity 
for this, his first fall, and hoped, in the gracious serenity of 
his more contemplative and propitious mood, that the rude, 
but willful, though not contumacious boy, might still have 
some elements of submission and reformation in him. And 
John grinned with a grim smile, as he hitched up the already 
nearly bursting waistband, which heaved with the throes of 
beef, plum-pudding, and paternal sentiment. Ha 1 ha I ha ! 
the wild, young dog ! I '11 let him up now, but may be the 
40 (473) 



474 " Sam : " ok, the History of Mystery. 

next time, I have occasion to lay my hand upon him, his 
mother won't know him, when I 'm clone with him ! 

But as Mrs. Bull was not present, to say whether she 
thought it likely she would, this important historical problem 
must remain through all time a solemn mystery, to be solved 
by some transcendental historian of the Bancroft order, in 
some remote era of the "spiritual" regime, which is now so 
rapidly approaching. 

Certainly John Bull proved himself in earnest in the apos- 
tolic threat of the "laying on of hands," some short time 
afterward — as we shall see — and we shall see, too, the 
result. 

But " Sam," fortunately, was of the philosophic tempera- 
ment too, — by inheritance, no doubt — and remained very 
meekly contented with the drubbing he had received, and a 
little unimportant concession of liberty to do as he pleased 
hereafter. To be sure he found himself with an empty 
treasury, a plundered, ravaged continent, a half-rebellious 
people at his disposal, but managed with a remarkable pla- 
cidity, through the easy temperament for which he is noted, 
to reconcile himself — with Avhat John Bull would have called 
a vainglorious contemplation of the manifold trophies of two 
entire captured armies, and the paltry pittance, for which he 
was obviously indebted to paternal magnanimity, of a per- 
petual fief to lands, demense rents, etc., to which he naturally 
considered himself, in all humility, somewhat entitled, by 
virtue of " Squatter Sovereignty." To be sure, " Sam" had 
never been a tailor, except in the Eve and x\dam sense, or 
the " Rough and Ready " — and therefore, could not be strictly 
considered a " squatter." As it was, we proceeded very meekly ' 
to organize a government, and weld a constitution, the iron 
hinges of which have as yet successfully resisted the shock 
of all elemental forces, which have been brought combined 
against it. 

This achievement, though, no doubt, owing to the inspira- 
tion of filial gratitude, solely, and the sentiment of thank- 
fulness for his full release, through the gracious and benign 
magnanimity of his new-found and portly sire — for we had 
thought " Sam " the child of the elements solely — neverthe- 
less placed him in a position among the nations of the earth. 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 475 

which caused Old Empire to verily stare at the Young Mon- 
strosity. 

The Federal Constitution organized, America an independ- 
dent nation of the earth, and Washington inauoairatoil as 
president, we must leave the intervening period to other his- 
tories, and make a long stride to that of the war of 1812 
with Tecumseh. 

The pressure of Bonaparte's commercial system, not con- 
fined to the civilized world, was felt even hy the wild tribes 
of the North American forests. The price of furs, in conse- 
quence of their exclusion from the Continent of Europe, their 
chief market, had sunk so low that the Indian hunters found 
their means of purchase from the traders greatly curtailed. 
The rapid extension of settlements north of the Ohio had not 
only occasioned an alarming diminution of game, but, in the 
facilities afforded for the introduction of whisky, had inflicted 
a still greater evil on the Indians. Among those tribes, 
Delawares, Shawanese, Wyandots, Miamis, and, further to the 
northwest, Ottowas, Potawatomies, Kickapoos, Winnebagoes, 
and Chippewas, a remarkable influence had of late been 
established by two twin brothers of the Shawanese tribe, who 
possessed between them all the qualities held in greatest 
esteem by the Indians. Tecumseh was an orator and a war- 
rior, active, intrepid, crafty, and unscrupulous. His brother, 
commonly known as The Prophet, was not only an orator, but 
a "medicine man'' of the highest pretensions, claiming to 
hold direct intercourse with the Great Spirit, and to possess 
miraculous powers. He announced himself as specially sent, 
and instructed to require of the red men, as a first step 
toward a return to their ancient prosperity, to renounce all 
those innovations borrowed from the whites, more especially 
the use of whisky, which had made them the slaves of tlie 
traders. But these denunciations were not limited to the 
vices borrowed from the white men ; they were equally lev- 
elled at those approaches to civilization, and those new reli- 
gious opinions, which the agents of the government on the 
one hand, and a few missionaries on tlie other, had been 
laboring to introduce. 

Separating himself from his own tribe, which was slow, at 
first, in recognizing his mission, the Prophet had established 
(1806) a village of his own at Greenvillo. noar the western 



476 "Sam:" or, the History of ]^Iystery. 

border of Ohio, on lands already ceded to the United States. 
Meanwhile Tecumseh traveled from tribe to tribe, spreading 
everywhere his brother's fame. While the Prophet's imme- 
diate followers, engrossed in their religious exercises, w^ere 
often on the verge of starvation, it was reported, and believed 
at a distance, that he could make pumpkins as big as a wig- 
wam spring out of the ground at a single word, along with 
stalks of corn, of which a single ear would suffice to feed a 
dozen men. Denounced by the chiefs of their own and 
the neighboring tribes as impostors, they retorted by charges 
of subserviency to the whites, and even of witchcraft, a very 
terrible accusation among the Indians, under which they pro- 
cured the death of two or three hostile Delaware Chiefs. It 
was, however, among the more remote tribes that the greater 
part of their convicts w'ere obtained ; and this, perhaps, was 
one reason why the Prophet, in the summer of 1808, removed 
his village to the Tippecanoe, a northern branch of the Upper 
Wabash, a spot belonging to the Miamis and Delawares, but 
which he occupied in spite of their opposition. At this new 
village, disciples and spectators flocking in from all sides, the 
Prophet continued to celebrate his appointed seasons of fasting 
and exhortations : religious exercises, which were intermin- 
gled with or followed by warlike sports, such as shooting with 
bows, by which the rifle was to be superseded, and wielding 
the stone tomahawk or war-club, ancient Indian weapons, 
before the hatchet was known. 

These military exercises, and an alleged secret intercourse 
with the British traders and agents, had drawn upon the 
Prophet and his brother the suspicions of Harrison, governor 
of the Indiana Territory, and superintendent of Indian 
affairs; but these suspicions were, in a great measure, dis- 
pelled by a visit which the Prophet paid to Vincennes, in 
which he assumed the character of a warm friend of peace, 
his sole object being, as he declared, to reform the Indians, 
and especially to put a stop to the use of whisky. Not long 
after this visit, Harrison held a treaty at Fort Wayne w^ith 
the Delawares, Potawatomies, Miamis, Kickapoos, Weas, and 
Eel Eiver Indians, at w'hich, in consideration of annuities 
amounting to $2350, and of presents in hand to the value of 
1^8200, he obtained a cession of lands extending up the 
Wabash above Terre Haute, and including the middle waters 



Sam : " on, the History of Mystery. 



'±i 



of White river. Neither the Prophet nor the tribe to which 
he belonged had any claim to these lands, except, indeed, 
under a doctrine which he had lately set up, that all the 
Indian lands belonged to all the tribes in common, and that 
none could be sold without the consent of all. On this 
ground the Prophet and his brother denounced the late 
treaty as void, and they threatened to kill all the chiefs 
concerned in making it — a threat the more formidable, in 
consequence of the accession to the Prophet's party, at this 
moment, of the Wyandots, a tribe on Lake Erie, not numer- 
ous, but famous warriors, and regarded with great respect by 
all the northwestern tribes, who called them uncles. 

In consequence of new reports of intended hostilities, Har- 
rison invited the Prophet and his brother to a new interview, 
which took place in a field just outside the village of Vin- 
cennes. Though requested not to bring more than thirty 
followers. Tecum seh came attended by some four hundred 
warriors. The governor, surrounded by several hundred of 
the unarmed townspeople, was seated in a chair, attended by 
the jduges of the Territory, by several officers of the army, 
and by Winnemack, a friendly Potawatomie chief, who had 
on this, as on other occasions, given notice of Tecumseh's 
designs. Under some trees on the border of the field were 
placed a sergeant and twelve men from the fort. The 
Indians, who sat in a semicircle on the grass, had left their 
rifies at their camp, but they had their tomahawks by them. 

Tecumseh, in his opening speech, fully avowed the design 
of himself and his brother to establish, by a combination 
among the tribes, the principle of no more cessions of Indian 
lands except by general consent. He admitted a determina- 
tion to kill all the chiefs concerned in the late treaty, but 
disavowed any intention to make war upon the whites, and 
denounced those who had accused him of it as liars. This 
was aimed at Winnemack, whom Tecumseh overwhelmed 
with a torrent of reproaches, and who, as he sat on the 
ground, near Harrison^s chair, secretly charged a pistol, and 
held it concealed, ready for use. 

Harrison, in reply, ridiculed Tecumseh's assertions that 
the Great Spirit had intended the Indians to be one people ; 
for, if so, why had he put different tongues into their heads? 



478 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

Why had he not given them one language, which all might 
understand ? The land in dispute had been bought of the 
Miamis. whose fathers had owned it while the Shawanese 
lived in Georgia ; and the sale had been consented to by all 
the tribes who by occupancy had any claim. They had seen 
fit to sell the land, and what business had the Shawanese to 
interpose ? Here the governor paused for the interpreter to 
repeat to the Indians what he had said, in the midst of which 
Tecumseh broke in, declaring, with violent gesticulations, 
that the governor's statements were false, and that he and 
the United States had cheated and imposed upon the Indians. 
As he went on with increased vehemence, his warriors sprang 
upon their feet and began to brandish their tomahawks. 
Harrison started from his chair and drew his sword, as did 
the officers who stood by ; Winnemack cocked his pistol ; and 
the unarmed citizens caught u]) such missiles as came to hand, 
principally brickbats from an ancient kiln. The guard of 
soldiers came running up, and were about to fire, but were 
checked by the governor, who asked the interpreters what 
was the matter. Being told what Tecumseh had said, Har- 
rison pronounced him a bad man, with whom he would hold 
no further conference. As he had come under the protection 
of the council fire, he might depart in safety, but he must 
instantly leave the neighborhood. Thereupon the council 
broke up, and Tecumseh retired to his camp. 

The people of Vincennes stood to their arms, expecting an 
attack that night. But, changing his tactics, Tecumseli the 
next morning expressed the greatest regret at the violence 
into which he had been betrayed, and requested and obtained 
another interview. This time his deportment was dignified 
and collected. He denied any intention of using force, 
ascribing the demonstration of the day before to the advice of 
white men — and Harrison had enemies in the Territory, who 
had accused him of having cheated the Indians— by whom he 
had been told that, if he made a vigorous opposition to the 
treaty, the governor would be recalled, and the land given 
up. But, though he disclaimed any hostile intentions, upon 
being asked whether he meant to interfere with the survey 
of the land, he significantly replied that he should adhere 
to the old boundary. He was followed by a Wyandot, a 



" Sam :" or, the History of Mystery. 479 

Potawatomie, an Ottawa, a Kickapoo, and a Winnobai^o, all of 
whom declared their adherence, and that of their tribes, to 
the new confederacy. 

^ Anxious to ascertain Tecumseh's real feelings and inten- 
tions, Harrison paid him a visit in his camp. He expressed, 
on this occasion, great reluctance to go to war with the 
Americans, and promised, if the recent cessions were o-iven 
up, and the principle adopted of taking no more land *from 
the Indians without the consent of all the tribes, to be a 
faithful ally, and to assist the Americans in any war with 
the British ; otherwise, though well aware that the pretended 
friendship of the Britisli was all for their own purposes, he 
should be obliged to join them. Harrison, though he held 
out no hope of success, promised to lay the matter before 
the President. 

Numerous complaints, some months after, from the frontier, 
of horses stolen, houses plundered, and even alleged murders, 
caused Harrison to send word to Tecumseh that, if he did not 
put a stop to these outrages, he might expect to be attacked. 
Tecumseh replied by a personal visit, but with no satisfactory 
result. Shortly after, he started on a journey to the South, 
in hope to bring the Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws into 
his confederacy. Among the Creeks especially he might 
hope for some influence, as his mother had belonged to that 
tribe. 

Harrison had suo'a;ested to the administration the estab- 
lishment of a post high up the Wabash, and they had pro- 
posed the seizing of Tecumseh and his brother as hostages 
for peace. Boyd's regiment of regular infantry had been 
for some time stationed at Pittsburgh, with a view to possi- 
ble operations in the West. Fresh complaints coming from 
the Illinois Territory, Boyd was directed to place himself 
under Harrison's command. Harrison was authorized, should 
the Prophet commence or threaten hostilities, to attack liim, 
and to call out militia for that purpose ; but considering the 
threatening state of relations with Great Britaiu, nuich anx- 
iety was at the same time expressed for the preservation of 
peace. The peoj^le of Vincennes and its neighborhood, 
dreaded being suddenly attacked at any time. Tliey were 
eao-er to strike a decisive blow ; and, though somewhat em- 
barrassed bv his orders. Harrison thought tliat policy the 



480 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

best. With Boyd's regiment, about three hundred strong, 
and some five hundred militia, partly from Kentucky, includ- 
ing two or three mounted companies, advancing some sixty 
miles up the Wabash to Terre Haute, he established a post 
there, named after himself ; and thence he dispatched some 
Delaware chiefs, that tribe still remaining friendly, on a 
mission to the Prophet. These messengers were very ill 
received, and were dismissed with insults and contempt. The 
troops then advanced, and, after eight days' cautious march, 
encamped within ten miles of the Prophet's town. The 
march being resumed the next day, small parties of Indians 
began to appear, with whom it was in vain attempted to 
communicate ; but within three miles of the town, some 
chiefs came forward, who asked the meaning of this hostile 
movement ; urged the Prophet's desire for peace ; and ob- 
tained a halt, and the appointment of a council for the mor- 
row. The army encamped in a hollow square, surrounded 
by a chain of sentinels, the troops sleeping on their arms, 
with orders, if attacked, to maintain their position at all 
hazards. Just before daybreak — the light of the moon, then 
in its third quarter, obscured by clouds, with an occasional 
drizzle of rain — an alarm was given by the discharge of a 
gun by one of the sentinels, followed by the Indian yell, 
and a desperate rush and heavy fire upon the left rear angle 
of the camp. The Indians had crept close to the sentinels, 
designing to overpower them by surprise. The men stood at 
once to their arms. All the camp-fires were immediately 
extinguished, lest they might serve to guide the aim of the 
Indians. The attack soon extended to almost the whole 
square, the Indians advaucing and retiring at a signal made 
by the rattling of deer's hoofs. Not being able to break 
the square, and being charged, soon after daylight, by the 
mounted men, they presently disappeared, carrying off their 
wounded, but leaving forty dead on the field. This battle, 
for the present, ended the war with the Indians, until Te- 
cumseh, after the declaration of the war of 1812, formed 
an alliance with the English, when it was resumed with all 
its terror. The final death of Tecumseh, which occurred 
soon after, at the battle of the Thames, broke up the formi- 
dable alliance among ten Indian tribes, of which he was the 
head, and defeated, finally, his grand and masterly scheme, 




rL''--?.:'i.:',.-:.^l.HLa^>^^<^^ .. ^ -^^ ^ - li t f ii -a 



ill 



'' Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 481 

of annihilating the entire western settlements, by a combi- 
nation of all the savage tribes of the West and North. 

The death of Tecumseh, in this battle, was in reality one 
of the great events of western history. The circumstances 
of his fall, of which so great use has been made for paltry 
political ends, which attributed it to the prowess of Colonel 
Richard M. Johnson, that Ethiop-loving demagogue of the 
democracy, have been, for the first time, properly delineated 
in our cut. He was undoubtedly slain by Colonel Whitley, 
of the Kentucky mounted men, in a single-hand conflict, 
and we have furnished a correct portrait of the noble horse 
which he rode on the occasion, and which, wounded by the 
last shot from the pistol of Tecumseh, survived, and finally 
came into the possession of the father of the present nar- 
rator. This event virtually ended the war, in this direction. 

This expedition gave rise to abundant discussions. Har- 
rison's consenting to suspend his march ; his selection of a 
camp so near the Indians ; his omission to fortify it, for 
which the w^ant of axes was pleaded in excuse ; and his con- 
duct also during the battle, were all very closely canvassed. 
A dispute also arose, as to whether the merits of the repulse 
belonged to him or to Boyd. Harrison, however, was sus- 
tained, and his conduct approved by the President, and by 
resolutions of the Legislatures of Kentucky and Indiana; 
and such was the general impression throughout the West, 
as to give him a decided military reputation. 

The question of war with Great Britain, which it is well 
remembered turned solely upon the question of embargo, 
and the right of impressment, which Johnny Bull, with tlie 
full recollection of his reserved, apostolic right of the ''lay- 
ing on of hands," claimed that he possessed the power of 
enforcing, to the virtual ruin of our national commerce and 
navy, caused immense discussion, in which the most brilliant 
of the children of " Sam " developed their finest powers of 
oratory and invective, pro and con. 

Randolph, with his fierce wit and demoniac satire, stood 
like the incarnate ghost of famine, in the halls of our Con- 
gress, hurling savage epithets at the heads of the promoters 
of the war ; shaking his spectral finger, with terrible de- 
nunciations, at the eloquent and subtle Clay, whose clarion 
voice, the verv music of war, had roused our people to battle 
41 



482 *' Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

against tlie predominating insolence of British naval ascend- 
ancy. But Eandolph squeaked his dire epithets in vain — a 
stronger spell than he could wake was upon the hearts of 
the people — and, in spite of Tories, Jesuits, and Quakers, 
the nation rose up as one man, and drove the vaunted t^a-ant 
of the seas from our waters, more humiliated than ever. 

This time pursy John Bull did " give up the ship ; '* Sam " 
had thrashed him on the land before, and now it became 
necessary to thrash him on the sea, which, in the glorious 
battles of the Constitution and the Guerriere, the United 
States and the Macedonian, the AYasp and the Hornet, he 
quickly demonstrated, that on whatever element he chose to 
carry his arms and his commerce, they should be respected. 
Nor did he hnd it necessary to bombard any Greytowns, at 
that, or perform any other such superlative heroics. 

Now, too, culminated the reputations of Jackson, Harri- 
son, and Scott — stalwart men, all, and good generals. The 
first, the greatest, and strongest since Washington, the man 
of iron will and lofty aim, tlie rude, unlettered hero of the 
savage "West I the gaunt Titan of modern pigmies of demo- 
cracy I Who can forget his long career of opposition and 
dauntless conquest against aggressions of all kinds, whether 
military, political, or social? 

It would be impossible for us, within our narrow limits, to 
follow up, in detail, the incidents of this important war. 
We can do nothing more than glance at some of its impor- 
tant events. We will only mention, that throughout its 
entire course, the whole conduct of John Bull exhibited a 
most unrelenting determination to consummate the purposes 
of his avowed vengeance. 

In doing this, he scrupled at no intrigue, however infa- 
mous, no strategy, however brutal, and no affiliation, how- ' 
ever debasing. He, without hesitation, sought the aid of 
the French Jesuits, whom he hated and feared more than 
any other power, except that of the recreant '• Sam," upon 
whom he was sworn to be avenged; and, through their 
agency, he formed treaties with the savage tribes of the con- 
tinent, over whom they had now obtained 'ascendancy, north 
and south, made them the medium of his revengeful largess 
in arms, ammunition, and money, and thus turned them 
loose from every " Reduction '' — the cordon of whicli had 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 483 

now been completed by the intrigues of these holy fathers, 
who gladly availed themselves of such temporary alliance 
with their old foes, to wreak their own hoarded venrreance 
against the Protestant cause. 

Thus inflamed, the sanguinary savages of the entire con- 
tinent were turned loose upon the women and children of 
our vast and defenseless borders, and the war assumed many 
aspects of tomahawk and scalping-knife horror, which had 
remained, until now, to assume their full sanguinary 
coloring. 

The battle in which Perry so singularly defeated the 
entire naval force of John Bull, upon the Northern Lakes, 
was the first and most important check which his hired bri- 
gands received during the war. Jackson's operations con- 
summated, by the battle of the Great Horse-shoe Bend, and 
the submission of the Creeks inforced a peace with the 
Southern Indians. 

Brown's invasion of Canada, and the battle of Chippewa, 
in which the young Scott distinguished himself, and the 
battle of Bridgewater, and the siege of Fort Erie, followed 
in rapid succession. The march on Washington, the battle 
of Bladensburg, and the attack and defense of Baltimore, 
which rapidly succeeded the capture of the capital, were soon 
followed by the advance on and the battle of Plattsburg, and 
the retreat of the British, which virtually ended the war in 
the Xorth. 

Then came the battle of Xew Orleans, of which we shall 
give some more detailed account. 

Previous to Jackson's arrival at New Orleans, everything 
had remained there, intervening dilapidations excepted, in 
the same condition in which Wilkinson had left it, a stop 
ha\dng been put, immediately after his departure, to every 
measiTre of defense which he had commenced. The total 
population of Louisiana did not exceed one hundred thousand, 
of whom haK were slaves or free people of color. Xew 
Orleans had about twenty thousand, of whom less than half 
were whites. Of these whites a large portion were French 
Creoles, while there were also many adventurers of foreign 
birth, whose attachment to the United States was not impli- 
citly relied upon. The adjoining districts of Mississippi con- 
tained not above fortv thousand inhabitants, of whom half 



484 ** Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

were slaves. In consequence of communications sent by 
General Jackson from Mobile, Governor Claiborne had 
ordered all the militia of Louisiana to hold themselves in 
resdiness for instant service, those of the city to exercise 
twice a week, and those of the country half as often. A 
public meeting was soon after called in New Orleans and a 
committee of defense organized, of which Edward Livingston 
was appointed chairman. Having recovered possession at 
last of his batture, Livingston had begun to rise above the 
wave of obloquy with which he had been so long overwhelmed ; 
but he was still so unpopular, and such were the local jeal- 
ousies and quarrels, that another and rival committee of 
defense was presently organized. Determined to avail him- 
self of every means of defense, Jackson issued from Mobile 
an affectionate address to " the noble-hearted, generous, free 
men of color." Eepudiating the mistaken policy which had 
liitherto excluded them from the military service, he called 
on them to enroll themselves in a distinct corps — a call to 
which they quickly responded, under an act of the Louisiana 
legislature, called together in special session, and by which 
a joint committee of defense was appointed, apparently, how- 
ever, with very little hopes that any very serious attack 
could be withstood. 

The arrival of Jackson, who was soon followed by a few 
regulars from Mobile, served to give some encouragement. 
But he saw at once that he must rely for defense mainly on 
exterior resources ; nor were there any to which he could 
look except Coffee's brigade, which, after the expulsion of 
the British from Pensacola, he had ordered to march for the 
Mississippi, and other detachments of militia from Kentucky 
and Tennessee, called for some time before, and expected 
down the river, but which, as yet, had scarcely set out. Such, 
in fact, was the poverty and disorganization of the quarter- 
master's department in the West, that the Kentucky troops 
had only been enabled to embark, by the credit of individnal 
citizens pledged for the necessary supplies. Intent to aug- 
ment his forces by all means, Jackson accepted the aid of 
Lafitte and a portion of the Baratarian buccaneers, who again 
tendered their services on condition of pardon. The convicts, 
also, in the prison, were released and embodied. 

A flat-bottomed frigate, commenced by Wilkinson, and 



*' Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 485 

whicli would have been invaluable at the present moment, 
lay unfinislied on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. The 
only naval force on that lake and Lake Borgne, was five o-un- 
boats and a small schooner; these, with a few other gun-boats 
and barges in the Mississippi, the schooner Carolina of four- 
teen guns, and the ship Louisiana of sixteen, the latter just 
taken into service, constituted the whole naval means of 
defending the water approaches. While Jackson was inspect- 
ing the forts St. Philip and Leon, which guarded the ascent 
of the river, news reached New Orleans that the expected 
British fleet had anchored at Cat Island, off the entrance of 
Lake Borgne. The force on board, without counting four 
thousand sailors and marines, amounted, as it afterward 
appeared, to twelve thousand men, commanded by Packing- 
ham, Keene, Lambert, and Gibbs, able and experienced i^en- 
erals of Wellington's late Peninsular army, whence, also^the 
troops had mostly been drawn. Some forty or fifty British 
barges succeeded after a hard fight, in capturing the Amer- 
ican flotilla on Lake Borgne, thus laying open the passage 
to New Orleans ; and about the same time, the post called 
the Balize, at the entrance of the river, with all the pilots 
stationed there, fell into the enemy's hands. 

The Louisiana militia were at once called into the field ; 
but a serious difficulty arose from the want of arms. Jack- 
son, some months before, had called for a supply from the 
arsenal at Pittsburg : but, from an unwillingness to pay the 
freight demanded by the only steamer which then navigated 
the Mississippi, these necessary means of defense had been 
shipped in keel boats, nor did they arrive till the fate of the 
city had been decided. Even the muskets on hand would 
have been useless, but for a supply of flints furnished by 
Lafitte, the Baratarian pirate. The Legislature passed an 
act extending for four months the payment of all bills and 
notes ; but they hesitated to suspend the habeas corpus act : 
whereupon Jackson, under whose command Governor Clai- 
borne had placed himself and the militia, took the responsi- 
bility of proclaiming martial law. 

Expresses had already been sent up the river, to get news, 
if possible, of Coffee's brigade, and of the militia expected 
from Tennessee and Kentucky. Cofl:ee, after encountering 
great hardships from excessive rains and short supplies, had 



486 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

reached the neighborhood of Baton Kouge about the time 
that the British appeared off Cat Island. On receiving Jack- 
son's orders, he had marched with one thousand three hundred 
and fifty men, leaving three hundred sick behind, and push- 
ing forward himself with eight hundred of the best mounted, 
he accomplished the distance of one hundred and fifty miles 
in two days, encamping on the third within four miles of the 
city. A body of Mississippi dragoons, which had marched 
from Mobile about the same time, arrived shortly after. On 
news of Carroll's approach with the additional Tennessee 
militia, the steamboat which had just arrived from Pittsburg 
had been sent to bring them down ; and Jackson thus found 
himself at the head of five thousand men, of whom somewhat 
less than a thousand were regulars. 

Meanwhile the British Army, advancing in their light 
transports to the head of Lake Borgne, under the pilotage of 
some Italian fishermen who dwelt in that neighborhood, found 
a water passage by the Bayou Bienvenu, to within a short 
distance of the Mississippi, of which the left bank, about 
fifteen miles below New Orleans, was gained by General 
Keene with an advanced party of two thousand light troops. 
This approach from the front was a fortunate circumstance ; 
had the British advanced by Lake Pontch art rain, thus cutting 
off" the communication of New Orleans with the country above, 
the result might have been very different. 

As soon as Jackson was informed of this lodgment, leaving 
Carroll and the Louisiana country militia to cover the city, 
he marched to meet the enemy, taking with him the regu- 
lars, the city militia. Coffee's brigade dismounted, and the 
Mississippi dragoons. The British left rested on the river, 
exposed to the fire of the schooner Carolina. Coffee was 
detached to gain their right, while Jackson, with the rest of 
the troops, and two pieces of artillery, advanced on their 
front. It was dark before the action began, a circumstance 
favorable in some respects to the raw American troops, but 
preventing co-operation, and producing some confusion. The 
attack was made with vigor. The British, greatl}' annoyed 
by the fire of the schooner, were driven to take several new 
positions ; but at last they got into a very strong one, between 
an old levee, which covered them from the schooner, and a 
new one, raised within, which guarded their right; and 



*' Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 487 

finding that this position could not be forced, Jackson retired 
with a loss of two hundred and twenty-three in killed, 
wounded, and prisoners. The enemy's loss was rather 
greater. The next day Jackson took up a position behind a 
deep trench, running from the river to the swamp, at a point 
where the solid land between was less than a mile in breadth, 
a position naturally strong, and which every etfort was made 
to strengthen. Just as the late action closed, the British 
had been joined by a new division from their ships ; but, 
alarmed at the w^arm reception they had met, and ignorant 
of Jackson's force, which the American prisoners greatly 
exaggerated, instead of pressing forward at once, which would 
have been their best chance, they waited to bring up rein- 
forcements and artillery. This interval was diligently 
employed by Jackson in strengthening his position, bales of 
cotton being used to form a rampart, which, as well as the 
ditch in front of it, was extended into the swamp. A British 
battery, established on the levee, succeded in destroying the 
Carolina by hot shot, but the Louisiana was saved, and towed 
out of reach. The next day the enemy advanced in force, 
driving in Jackson's outposts, and having approached within 
a half a mile of his lines, they opened upon them with artil- 
lery, bombs, and Congreve rockets. Jackson had five pieces 
of heavy artillery already mounted, and served by the crew 
of the Carolina. These guns, aided by the raking fire of 
the Louisiana, checked the enemy's advance, and after a seven 
hours' cannonade, he retired with considerable loss. 

As matters thus approached a crisis, Jackson and Claiborne 
were not a little troubled at the apprehension of treachery 
within the city. Fulwar Skip worth, who, from having been 
governor of the late insurgent republic of West Florida, was 
now speaker of the Louisiana Senate, had made some inqui- 
ries of Major Butler, left in command at New Orleans, as to 
the truth 'of a rumor, that, rather than surrender, Jackson 
would destroy the city and retire up the river, from which, 
and other circumstances, it was conjectured tliat the Legisla- 
ture might intend to save the city by offering to capitulate. 
Jackson directed Clairborne, in case any move was made in 
that direction, to arrrest the members of the Legislature ; an 
order to which Claiborne gave such an interpretation, con- 
trary, it was afterward said, to Jackson's intentions, that, 



488 *• Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

without waiting to see whether there were any grounds for 
his suspicions, he placed a military guard at the door of the 
hall, and broke up the legislative session. Jackson also 
authorized a general search of houses and stores for arms, 
and, to prevent any skulking from militia duty, he directed 
a registration of all the male inhabitants. 

With the commencement of the new year, the enemy 
renewed his attack with more and heavier artillery ; but, in 
the interval, the works had been much strengthened ; and, 
after a heavy cannonade, the British guns were dismounted 
and silenced. Jackson^s preparations for defense were not 
confined to the left bank of the river. By the Bay of Bara- 
taria and the inlets connected with it, the bank opposite the 
city might be approached, without passing the forts on the 
river ; and to guard against attack from that quarter, Gen- 
eral 3Iorgan had been sent across, with orders to throw up 
defenses like those on the eastern side. At last the long 
expected Kentuckians arrived — 2250 men, led by General 
Adair, that old friend of Burr's — but half of them were 
without arms, which Jackson could not furnish. Detachments 
of these Kentuckians and of the Louisiana militia were sent 
to join Morgan, whose force was thus raised to 1500 men, 
stationed behind an intrenchment, defended by several brass 
twelves and by a battery of twenty four-pounders, commanded 
by Commodore Patterson. The men without arms were em- 
ployed by Jackson upon a second line of intrenchments, as a 
place of rally should he be driven from his first line. 

Preparations had meanwhile been made by the British for 
a grand attack. Boats having been drawn, with great labor, 
from the bayou into the river, Colonel Thornton was sent 
across in the night, with a British detachment, to assault 
Morgan. At the same time, under the fire of a battery of 
six eighteen pounders, erected also during the night, the 
main body, led by Packenham in person, advanced to storm 
Jackson's position. " Booty and beauty," such was the watch- 
word; comment enough on British military morals. One 
column marched by the river, and, without much difficulty, 
carried an advanced redoubt, by the guns of which the 
approach to the American line was raked through its whole 
extent. The other and main column, led by Gibbs and 
Keene, approached that part of the American line nearest 



" Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 489 

to the fatal fire of the Tennessee sharp-shooters, and of nine 
pieces of heavy artillery, was speedily thrown into confusion. 
Packingham, in attempting to restore order, was killed ; the 
other two generals were wounded, Gibbs mortally ; and after 
an hour's struggle, and two unsuccessful advances, Lambert, 
who succeeded to the command, was obliged to withdraw, at 
the same time abandoning the redoubt on the river, which the 
other column had carried. Thornton, on the opposite bank, not- 
withstanding some delay in his advance, had proved entirely 
successful, and the position he had gained would have given 
great advantage for renewing the attack. But the British 
army had lost two thousand men in killed and wounded ; and 
Lambert, dreading still further disasters, hastened to with- 
draw Thornton's troops, and to abandon the whole enterprise. 
Having taken all proper precautions to cover his retreat, he 
first fell back to the original landing place on Lake Borgne, 
from which point the army was presently re-embarked. 
Jackson's loss was but trifling, only seventy-one on both 
sides of the river, while his total loss in the campaign had 
been but three hundred and thirty-three. But with his raw 
troops, whose flight before Thornton had shown how little they 
could be depended on, he did not choose to risk anything in 
attempting to intercept the enemy's retreat, who, retiring 
first to Cat Island, proceeded thence, as if not to fail entirely, 
to the attack and capture of Fort Bowyer. About the same 
time the enemy withdrew from the coast of Georgia ; but 
not until they had caused a proclamation of martial law, and 
had thrown that State, and South Carolina also, into a par- 
oxysm of alarm. 

Rumors of Jackson's successes beginning to arrive at 
Washington, successes which the administration, so far as 
anything had been done by them, had very little right to 
expect, came like an exhilarating cordial to the baffled and 
mortified war party. Confirmations, with additional particu- 
lars, continued to arrive, and to be welcomed with the loudest 
exultations ; but, before the whole story was known, the 
public attention was drawn off" to a fresh piece of news, of 
even greater interest and importance. 

The British sloop of war Favorite, arriving at New York 
under a flag of truce, brought two messengers, one British, 



490 " Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery, 

tlie otlier American, bearers of an unexpected treaty of peace, 
already ratified by the British government. lb was late of a 
Saturday night ; but no sooner was the joyful word peace cir- 
culated through the city — and it spread like electricity — than, 
without stopping to inquire or to think about the terms, the 
whole active population, of all parties, rushed into the streets 
in a perfect ecstasy of delight ; and, amid shouts, illumina- 
tions, and a perfect uproar of joy, expresses were sent off, 
north and south, with the news. In thirty-two hours (thought 
to be a great effort of speed) the announcement reached 
Boston, where it was received on Monday morning with the 
most clamorous rejoicings. All the bells were at once set to 
ringing ; messengers were despatched in every direction to 
spread the delig^litful intelligence ; the schools received a 
holyday ; the whole population, quitting their employments, 
hastened to congratulate each other at this relief, not only 
from foreign war, but from the still more dreadful impending 
cloud of internal and civil struggle. The blockaded shipping, 
rotting forlorn at the wharves, got out all their flags and 
streamers, and, before night, once more the hum of commerce 
sounded, ship-carpenters and riggers were busy at work, car- 
goes were being shipped, and crews engaged. The joy was 
the same along the whole maritime frontier ; nor, however 
they might strive to conceal their emotions, was it less among 
the politicians at Washington, including those most forward 
to precipitate their country into a struggle so unequal and 
disastrous. At the same time they made a very dexterous 
use of the sudden halo of glory diffused by Jackson's victory, 
to conceal from themselves, as well as from the people, the 
desperate point to which affairs had been reduced. Troup 
had the audacity to congratulate the House even before the 
contents of the treaty were known, it having but just been 
laid before the Senate, on the glorious termination of the 
most glorious war ever waged by any people — provided, as he 
cautiously added, that the treaty should prove an honora- 
ble one ! 

The weakness of the British possessions in Xorth America ; 
the necessity of some barrier against that ambitious spirit 
admirals and vice-admirals failed, as tlie same proposal 
has often done since, but an important change was made in 



"Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 491 

of annexation exhibited in the acquisition of Louisiana, the 
threatened conquest of Canada, and the constant curtailment 
of the Indian territory, these had been stated by the British 
commissioners, at the opening of the negotiation, as grounds 
of their claim for an assignment to the British Indian allies, 
of a permanent neutral territory, with a prohibition to the 
United States to establish fortresses or keep ships on the 
great lakes. The American commissioners had protested, in 
reply, against this attempted interference with the Indians, 
as a thing which the policy of Great Britain had never per- 
mitted in her own case, and as contrary to the assurances 
originally given of a disposition to treat on terms of perfect 
reciprocity. They denied, with emphasis, tliat the conquest 
of Canada had ever been a declared object of the war ; and 
they dwelt on the humane disposition of their government 
toward the Indians, protesting, also, against the British 
employment of Indian auxiliaries. Finally, after some 
pretty sharp controversy, the British commissioners had 
agreed to be content with a mutual stipulation for peace 
with the Indians, the tribes still actively engaged in hostili- 
ties at the close of the war, to be restored to the same position 
in which they had stood at its commencement. This question 
disposed of by the provisional assent of the American com- 
missioners, the next related to boundaries. The false idea 
that the Mississippi had its source north of the forty-ninth 
degree of latitude, had rendered nugatory the provision of 
the treaty of 1783 as to the northern boundary of the United 
States, west of the Lake of the Woods. That boundary, 
indeed, since the acquisition of Louisiana, remained to be 
extended far to the west, the United States claiming, under 
that cession, even to the Pacific Ocean. The provision for a 
boundary on the northeast, so far as related to the territory 
between the head of the St. Croix and the head of the Con- 
necticut, had likewise failed, so the British commissioners 
contended, from similar geographical ignorance ; and, as the 
basis of a new arrangement, they had suggested that each 
party should retain what he held at the signing of the treaty. 
To this the American commissioners had refused to agree. 
So the negotiation had stood at the latest accounts previous 
to the arrival of the treaty of peace. 

The treaty, as signed, provided for the mutual restoration 



492 *'Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

of all conquered territory, and for the appointment of three 
commissions : one to settle the title to the islands in Passam- 
aquoddy Bay ; another to mark out the northeastern boundary 
as far as the St. Lawrence ; and a third to run the line 
throuo-h the St. Lawrence and the lakes, to ihe Lake of the 
Woods. Li case of disagreement in either commission, the 
point in dispute was to be referred to some friendly Power. 
No provision was made as to the boundary west of the Lake 
of the Woods, nor as to the fishery on the shores of British 
America. The British commissioners refused to accept, in 
return for this right of fishing, a modified renewal of the 
article for the navigation of the Mississippi, which, in their 
view, was also terminated by the war. The result, therefore, 
was, that, instead of leaving the parties where they began, 
the war took away from Great Britain a nominal right, never 
used, of navigating the Mississippi, and from the New Eng- 
land fishermen a valuable right, hitherto used from the 
earliest times, of catching and curing fish on the shores of 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the loss of which long continued 
to be felt. Hostilities on land were to terminate with the 
ratification of the treaty, and on the ocean in certain specified 
periods, according to distances, of which the longest w^as 
four months. By some adroit management, the English 
commissioners were induced to admit into the treaty a clause 
copied from that of 1783, with the history of which probably 
they were not familiar, against carrying away " any negroes 
or other property." The only remaining article related to 
the slave trade, for the suppression of which, as irreconcilable 
with the principles of humanity and justice, both parties 
promised to use their best endeavors. 

The treaty, having been unanimously ratified and formally 
promulgated, was celebrated everywhere throughout the 
country with the loudest rejoicings. The Federalists, and 
all the more sensible Republicans, considered the country 
lucky in the peace, such as it was. The violent war men, 
greatly cooled by this time, concealed their mortification 
behind the smoke of Jackson's victory, and vague declama- 
tions about the national rights vindicated, the national char- 
acter exalted, and the military and naval glory of the war. 
Considering the new demands of Great Britain, put forward 
at Ghent, they seemed to esteem it a triumph to be allowed 



*' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 493 

to stop where they began, leavino- the whole question of 
impressments and neutral rights, the sole ostensible occasion 
of the war, without a word said on the subject, to be settled 
at some convenient opportunity : a common termination of 
wars, even for the most powerful and belligerent nations, and 
of which Great Britain herself has given more than' one 
instance. 

The war thus happily ended, Dallas's bank scheme, which 
had been again revived and carried througli the Senate, was 
indefinitely postponed in the House by a majority of one vote. 
Instead of the scheme of finance which he had proposed, a 
loan of gl 8,400,000 was authorized, being the amount of 
treasury notes outstanding ; and, as immediate means to go 
on with, new treasury notes to the amount of twenty-five 
millions. A part of these notes, to be issued in sums under 
a hundred dollars, payable to the bearer, and without inter- 
est, were intended to serve as a currency. Those over a 
hundred dollars were to bear an interest of five and two-fifths 
per cent., — a cent and a half a day for every hundred dollars. 
Both kinds were to be receivable for all public dues, and fund- 
able at the pleasure of the holder — those bearing interest, 
in six per cent, stock, and those without interest in seven per 
cent, stock. 

Haste was made to repeal, in favor of all reciprocating 
nations, the act imposing discriminating duties on foreign 
vessels, and all remnants and remainders, if any there were, 
of the old non-intercourse and non-importation acts ; also an 
act passed only a few days before, containing many strong 
provisions, some of them of very questionable constitution- 
ality, for the extinguishment of trade and intercourse with 
Great Britain. The commissioners at Ghent, before termi- 
nating their mission, signed a commercial convention for 
four years, copied substantially from Jay's treaty, but with 
an additional proviso for absolute reciprocity in the direct 
trade, by the abolition, on both sides, of all discriminations. 

Appropriations were made for rebuilding the public edifices 
lately burned by the British ; not, however, without a good 
deal of opposition. Khea proposed to encircle the ruins of 
the Capitol with an iron balustrade, to let the ivy grow over 
them, and to place on their front, in letters of brass, this 
inscription: "Americans! This is the effect of British 



494 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

barbarism ! Let us swear eternal hatred to England I" Many 
of the Southern members were quite electrified by this burst 
of patriotic indignation ; but the effect passed rapidly away, 
as it occurred to them that Khea was a Pennsylvanian, 
anxious to have the seat of government removed to Phila- 
delphia or Lancaster. 

Jefferson had offered a library of some seven thousand 
volumes, which he had been all his life collecting, to supj^ly 
the place of that burned by the British ; but the appropria- 
tion for this purpose did not pass without violent opposition. 
It was proposed to pay for these books about thirty thousand 
dollars — more, no doubt, than they would have sold for, 
though probably not much more than they had cost. But 
this act of mutual accommodation — for Jefferson needed the 
money — was violently denounced by many of the Federalists 
as an approach to a system of pensions. The same objection 
defeated a bill to pay to the destitute family of Vice Presi- 
dent Gerry, who had died during the session, his salary for 
the remainder of the year. A vast deal of Federal spleen 
was vented in the not very creditable debates on these two 
bills. The Democrats fully retorted in the discussion of a 
bill, which also failed to pass, to repay to Massachusetts and 
Connecticut their advances for local defense during the war 
— advances of which a large amount, amid millions squan- 
dered on more favored States, remains unpaid to this day. 

The President recommended a peace establishment of 
20,000 men. The House wished to reduce it to 6000 ; the 
Senate preferred 15,000; 10,000 was finally agreed to as a 
compromise. Two major generals, four brigadiers, and the 
necessary number of staff, regimental, and company officers, 
were to be selected by the President from those in service. 
The supernumerary officers and men, according to the original 
terms of enlistment, were to be discharged with three months' 
extra pay. An additional bounty in land was also proposed, 
but not carried. 

The flotilla act was repealed, and the remaining gun-boats 
ordered to be sold. The naval establishment was left as it 
stood, with an additional appropriation of ;$200,000 annually, 
for three years, for its gradual increase. A bill for appointing 
the swamp, occupied by CarrolPs division. The ditch in front 
was very deep and broad ; and the storming column, exposed 



" Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 495 

the naval administration, by creating a board of three naval 
officers, to exercise, under the Secretary of the Navy, the 
general superintendence of that department. 

The three national ships at sea when peace was concluded 
did not return without additional laurels. Off Lisbon, the 
Constitution engaged in a moonlight action two British sloops 
of war, the Cyane, of twenty-four guns, and the Levant, of 
eighteen. Keeping the wind, and taking a distance favora- 
ble to her long twenty-fours, but too great for the carronades, 
the enemy's principal armament, herself, as it were, in the 
apex, and the two hostile ships at the opposite ano'les of a 
nearly equilateral triangle, the Constitution compefled first 
the Cyane and then the Levant to strike, with a lose to her- 
self of only three killed and twelve wounded, and no essential 
damage to the vessel. She then proceeded with her prizes 
to Porto Praya, in the Cape de Verd Islands, whence she 
barely escaped, in a fog, from a squadron of heavy British 
vessels, by which the Levant was recaptured. 

The rendezvous appointed for the Hornet and Peacock, on 
getting out of New York, was Tristran d'Acunha, off the 
Cape of Good Hope. Shortly before arriving there, the 
Hornet, Captain Biddle, encountered and captured the brig- 
of-war Penguin, of eighteen guns, just about her match. 
The Penguin suffered very severely, with loss of foremast 
and bowsprit, so that it became necessary to destroy her. 
The Peacock appeared the next day, when both vessels pro- 
ceeded together to the Indian Ocean. As they entered tliat 
sea they were chased by a seventy-four, from which the Hor- 
net escaped with difficulty, being obliged to throw overboard 
almost everything moveable, and returning to New York 
without boat, anchor, or cable, and with but one gun. The 
Peacock, Captain Warrington, kept on her cruise, and in the 
Straits of Sunda, captured the Nautilus, an East India 
cruiser, of fourteen guns. Though told that peace had been 
made, Warrington insisted that the Nautilus should strike to 
him, and he compelled her to do so by a broadside, wliicli 
killed six men and wounded eight others. But tlie n^'Xt day 
she was given up, and so ended the naval hostilities. 

The whole number of British vessels captured during tlie 
war, on the lakes and on the ocean, as well by privatwrs (of 
which there remained some forty or fifty at sea when poa^e 



496 '*Sam:'' or, the History of Mystery. 

was concluded) as by national vessels, omitting those recap- 
tured, was reckoned at seventeen hundred and fifty. According 
to an official British return, there had been captured or 
destroyed by shi23s of the royal navy, forty-two American 
national vessels, including twenty-two gun-boats, two hun- 
dred and thirty-three privateers, and fourteen hundred and 
thirty-seven merchant vessels — sixteen hundred and eighty- 
three in all, manned by upward of eighteen thousand sea- 
men. The captures by British privateers were not numerous. 

Owing to the early disasters by land, the balance of pris- 
oners had been all along against the Americans. Horrid, 
indeed, were the tales brought back, equal to those of the 
Jersey prison-ship, from Dartmoor and other British depots 
for prisoners, where war had been seen stripped of all its 
gilding, and felt in all its grim horrors. Much feeling was 
also occasioned by an unlucky disturbance which occurred at 
Dartmoor after the peace was known, the guard firing on the 
prisoners and killing several. 

As to the maritime results of the war, the British remained 
very sore. A party, with the London Times at its head, 
bitterly complained that any peace should have been assented 
to before stripping the upstart and insolent Yankees of their 
naval laurels. Madison, on the other hand, exhibited his 
anxiety to avoid the impressment question for the future by 
recommending the passage of an act excluding foreign sea- 
men from American ships. 

The Algerine war which now broke out, although it con- 
tributed to the making of a naval hero of Decatur, being of 
minor importance, in comparison with the great events which 
we are commemorating, Hildreth disposes of very summarily. 

Just as the late war with Great Britain had broken out, 
the Dey of Algiers, taking offense at not having received 
from America the precise articles in the way of tribute, 
demanded, had unceremoaiously dismissed Lear, the consul, 
had declared war, and had since captured an American ves- 
sel, and reduced her crew to slavery. Immediately after the 
ratification of the treaty with England, this declaration of 
war had been reciprocated. Efforts had been at once made 
to fit out ships, new and old, including several small ones 
lately purchased for the proposed squadrons of Porter and 
Perry, and before many weeks Decatur sailed from New 



*' Sam: " or, the History op Mystery. 497 

York with the Guerriere, Macedonian, and Constellation 
frigates, the Ontario, new sloop-of-war, four brigs, and two 
schooners. Two days after passing Gibraltar, he^'fell in with 
and captured an Algerine frigate of forty-four guns, the 
largest ship in the Algerine navy, which struck to the Guer- 
riere after a running fight of twenty-five minutes. A day 
or two after, an Algerine brig was chased into shoal water 
on the Spanish coast, and captured by the smaller vessels. 
Decatur having appeared off Algiers, the terrified Dey at 
once consented to a treaty, which he submitted to sign on 
Decatur's quarter-deck, surrendering all prisoners on "hand, 
making certain pecuniary indemnities, renouncing all future 
claim to any American tribute or presents, and the practice, 
also, of reducing prisoners of war to slavery. Decatur then 
proceeded to Tunis and Tripoli, and obtained from both in- 
demnity for American vessels captured under the guns of 
their forts by British cruisers during the late war. The Bey 
of Tripoli being short of cash, Decatur agreed to accept in 
part payment the restoration to liberty of eight Danes and 
two Neapolitans, held as slaves. 

Later in the season, Bainbridge sailed from Boston with 
the Independence, seventy-four, the Erie sloop-of-war, and 
two smaller vessels. Being joined by the Congress frigate, 
which had carried Eustis to Holland, and by Decatur's squad- 
ron, and finding every thing settled, he had nothing to do 
but to display his force in the ports of the Mediterranean, 
where the eclat of the American naval victories over the 
British caused him to be received with marked respect. A 
little incident which occurred at IMalaga deserves notice, as 
showing how natural is the insolence of power, and how 
readily our navy officers could fall into the very practices of 
which we had complained so loudly in the British. A de- 
serter from the Independence, being seized in the streets of 
Malaga by one of her officers, was discharged by the civil 
authority on the claim which he set up of being a Spanish 
citizen. Bainbridge, however, still demanded liim. threaten- 
ing, if he were not given up, to land and take him by force, 
and, if resistance were made, to fire upon the town— threats 
to which the authorities yielded. 

The return of Bonaparte to France excited a momfutarv 
alarm, lest the unsettled questions of impressment and 
42 



498 '' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

neutral rights might again come up ; but his speedy downfall 
destroyed these apprehensions, and with them the hopes, 
also, of a new harvest to be reaped by neutral commerce. 

The posts of Prarie du Chien and Michilimackinac having 
been re-occupied, steps were taken for the complete pacifica- 
tion of all the northwestern tribes. At a council held at 
Detroit, at which were represented the Senecas, Delawares, 
Shawanese, Wyandots, Potawatomies of Lake Michigan, Ot- 
tawas, and Chippewas, with some bands, also, of the Winne- 
bagoes and Sauks, and at which the famous Prophet, the 
brother of Tecumseh, was present, the hatchet was formally 
buried as between all these tribes and as between them and 
the United States. Other treaties soon followed, with the 
Potawatomies of Illinois, the Piankeshaws, Osages, lowas, 
Kansas, Foxes, Kickapoos, and various bands of the great 
Sioux confederacy, with several of which formal relations 
were now first established. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

Causes of the "War — Debates in Congress — Extracts from Mr. Clay's 
Speeches on the diiferent phases of the War Question. 

The causes of this war of 1812, whicli was now brought 
to an almost immediate conclusion, by the treaty of Ghent, 
and which have been much debated, are best illustrated by 
the speeches of Mr. Clay, its great champion, as well as the 
universal cliampion of human rights and freedom every- 
w^here. Mr. Clay, in his urgency for this war, won for himself 
the most enduring basis of that singular personal popularity, 
which has since marked his reputation, as the noblest of 
the sons of "Sam" since his first representative, Wash- 
ington. 

It is remarkable, that the two great nations of western 
Europe, Great Britain and France, while at war with each 
other, should have presumed, that they could do any amount 
of injury to the rights and commercial interests of the United 
States with impunity. The British blockade of 1806 was 
followed by the Berlin edicts, and the British orders in council 
by the edicts of Milan, and these belligerent powers made 
war on the commerce of a friend, the better to carry on war 
between themselves. The United States were made the 
victim of their rapacity. From February 28, to 3Iay 20, 
1811, less than three months, twenty-seven American mer- 
chant-vessels were sent into British ports, prizes to Britisli 
cruisers, for violation of the orders in council, and the Britisli 
admiralty courts were constantly occupied in adjudicating on 
American property, thus brought under their jurisdiction, 
little of which escaped forfeiture for the crime of a neutral 
commerce, and for attempting to enter ports which had no 

<499) 



500 " Sam : '' or, the History of Mystery. 

other blockade than parchment orders. At the same time 
that these outrages were committed on American commerce, 
swelling up to millions annually, British manufactures were 
allowed and encouraged to enter, in neutral bottoms, the very 
ports from which American vessels, laden with American pro- 
duce, were excluded, and for having papers of that destina- 
tion, were captured ! 

But Great Britain, having command of the seas, asserted 
another otFensive power, in relation to the United States, to 
maintain her maritime ascendancy, by seizing American sea- 
men, on board American merchantmen, and forcing them 
into the British navy, under the pretense of searching for 
British subjects, and claiming their services, while all parties 
knew tlie wrong that was done. The seizure of the property 
of a neutral power, as a belligerent right, and claiming it as 
forfeited, though sufficiently atrocious, was a much less exas- 
perating offense, than that of forcing neutrals to fight the 
battles of a belligerent. France was wreno; ; Great Britain 
was more so. The former had some mao-nannnitv, when it was 
convenient to exercise it ; while the latter seemed bent on 
wrong for the love of it. It is true, that Great Britain pre- 
tended to be fighting for existence, and her own vindicators 
asserted the law of necessity : but that was neither consola- 
tion, nor relief, to those whose rights she violated. 

The truth undoubtedly was, that the United States had 
fallen into contempt, and the time had arrived when it was 
necessary to vindicate their rights. The mission of John 
Henry, into New England, in 1809, acting under the instruc- 
tions of Sir James Craig, governor of Canada, with designs 
against the Union, as proved by Mr. Madison's communications 
to Congress, ^larch 9, 1812, is sufficient evidence, that some- 
thing more than contempt actuated the British government 
in the repeated and aggravated insults and injuries done to 
the government and people of the United States, for a series 
of years, naught abated by time and remonstrance, but ever 
on the increase. The conclusion seemed to have been adopted 
in Europe, that, though the United States had fought once, 
and gained their independence, there was no great danger of 
their fighting again, though insulted and wronged ; that they 
might be injured to any extent with impunity. What else 
cx)uld account for the treatment received from France and 



*' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 501 

Great Britain, evpocially tlie latter? Sucli was the state of 
things which Ic^d to the war of 1812. 

Congress was convoked a month hefore the regular time, 
in the fall of 1811, and the message of President Madison 
was decidedly in the war tone. The winter was spent in 
notes of preparation, and by the 20th of March, Congress 
had passed, and the President approved, hills of tlie following 
titles : To fill up the ranks and prolong the enlistment of 
the army; to raise an additional regular force of twenty- 
five thousand men ; to raise six companies of mounted rangers 
for the defense of the western frontier ; to arm the militia ; 
to authorize detachments of militia to fortify the maritime 
frontier ; to repair and fit the entire naval force ; to procure 
camp-equipage, baggage-wagons, etc. ; to purchase ordnance 
and military stores ; to obtain supplies of sulphur and salt- 
peter ; to make furthei' provisions for the corps of engineers ; 
to establish a quartermaster's department, and create com- 
missary-generals ; to provide for the support of the army and 
navy ; and to authorize a loan of eleven millions. 

In the meantime, there had been a vigorous opposition to 
these measures ; but when, on the 1st of April, Mr. Madison 
sent in his special message, with the documents respecting 
Henry's mission, there was a burst of indignant feeling from 
Congress, and from the whole nation, well calculated to unite 
the country in hostile measures. From this time till the 
declaration of war, on the 19th of June, the utmost spirit of 
preparation was manifested in the legislative and executive 
branches of the government, to begin the contest. 

The well-known moderation of President Madison's char- 
acter demanded powerful influences, to bring him up to the 
required temper for the responsibilities of this new position, 
as the head of the government ; and there was probably but 
one man who was capable, by his extraordinary power over 
others, of imparting to him the spirit that was needed for 
the time. It hardly need be said, that he was the speaker 
of the House of Pi-epresentatives— Mr. Clay. By the same 
cause. Congress was ready for the war before the president 
was. He was still laboring in vain at the oar of negotiation, 
with Mr. Foster, the British minister, when an informal 
deputation from the other branch of the government waited 
upon him, with Mr. Clay at their head, and before they 



502 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

retired the die was cast. Nothing remained but the formal 
act of declaration. 

It may be remarked, that Mr. Clay's feelings in relation 
to the insults and wrongs suffered by the country from Great 
Britain, had been for several years maturing for that course 
of action which he pursued after the struggle commenced, 
and were on various occasions, and in sundry forms, publicly 
expressed — often incidentally. In a speech in the Senate, 
December 25, 1810, in vindication of President Madison's 
occupation of the territory in dispute between the United 
States and Spain, eastward from the Mississippi to the line 
of the Perdido, he said — 

" The gentleman [Mr. Horsey, of Delaware] reminds us, 
that Great Britain, the ally of Spain, may be obliged, by her 
connection with that country, to take part with her against 
us, and to consider this measure of the president as justifying 
an appeal to arms. Sir, is the time never to arrive, when 
we may manage our own affairs, without the fear of insult- 
ing his Britannic majesty? Is the rod of British power to 
be forever suspended over our heads ? — Does Congress put on 
an embargo to shelter our rightful commerce against the 
piratical depredations committed upon it on the ocean ? We 
are immediately warned of the indignation of offended Eng- 
land. Is a law of non-intercourse proposed ? The whole 
navy of the haughty mistress of the seas is made to thunder 
in our ears. Does the president refuse to continue a corres- 
pondence with a minister, who violates the decorum belong- 
ing to his diplomatic character by giving and deliberately 
repeating an affront to the whole nation ? We are instantly 
menaced with the chastisement which English pride will not 
fail to inflict. Whether we assert our rights by sea, or 
attempt their maintenance by land — whithersoever we turn 
ourselves, this phantom incessantly pursues us. Already 
has it had too much influence on the councils of the nation. 
It contributed to the repeal of the embargo — that dishonor- 
able repeal, which has so much tarnished the character of our 
government. Mr. President, I have before said on this floor^ 
and now take occasion to remark, that I most sincerely desire 
peace and amity with England ; that I even prefer an adjust- 
ment of all differences with her, before one with any other 
nation. But if she persists in a denial of justice to us, or if 



'*Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 503 

she avails herself of the occupation of West Florida, to com- 
mence ^yar upon us, I trust and hope that all hearts will unite, 
in a bold and vigorous vindication of our rights." 

Mr. Clay, foreseeing that war with Great Britain was 
inevitable, had declined going into the Senate again, and in 
1811 was elected to the House of Representatives, as the 
more important branch of the public service for the occasion. 
Having made up his mind, that war was the only course to 
vindicate the national honor and rights, all his eftbrts were 
directed to bring about the final measure, from which there 
could be no retreat, till those rights should be acknowledged 
and respected. Though Speaker of the House, opportunities 
were atforded him, in committee of the whole on the state of 
the Union, to express his sentiments ; and it was in this field 
that he wielded a paramount influence. His addresses in 
the secret sessions, while the question of war was pending, 
which, as represented, were most animating and stirring, are 
of course lost ; and but a few of those delivered in public 
debate, are extant. While the bill to raise an additional 
regular force of twenty-five thousand men, was pending, 
Mr. Clay addressed the House, in committee, on the 31st of 
December, 1811. The following are extracts from this 
speech : 

" Mr. Clay [the Speaker] said, that when the subject of 
this bill was before the House in the abstract form of a 
resolution, proposed by the committee of foreign relations, it 
was the pleasure of the House to discuss it while he was in 
the chair. He did not complain of this course of proceed- 
ing ; for he did not at any time wish the House, from con- 
siderations personal to him, to depart from tliat mode of 
transacting the public business which they tliouoht best. 
He merely adverted to the circumstance, as an apology for 
the trouble he was about to give the committee. He was at 
all times disposed to take his share of responsibility, and 
under this impression, he felt that he owed it to his constitu- 
ents and to himself, before the committee rose, to submit to 
their attention a few observations. * 

" The difference between those who were for fifteen tliou- 
sand, and those who were for twenty-five thousand men, 
appeared to him to resolve itself into the question, mereiv, 
of a short or protracted war : a war of vigor, or a war of 



504 "Sam-/' or, the History of Mystery. 

languor and imbecility. If a competent force be raised in 
the first instance, the war on the continent will be speedily 
terminated. He was aware that it might still rage on the 
ocean. But where the nation could act with unquestionable 
success, he w^as in favor of the display of an energy cor- 
respondent to the feelings and spirit of the country. Sup- 
pose one-third of the force he had mentioned (twenty-five 
thousand men) could reduce the country, say in three years, 
and that the whole could accomplish the same object in one 
year ; taking into view the greater hazard of the repulsion 
and defeat of the small force, and every other consideration, 
do not wisdom and true economy equally decide in favor of 
the larger force, and thus prevent failure in consequence of 
inadequate means? He begged gentlemen to recollect the 
immense extent of the United States : our vast maritime 
frontier, vulnerable in almost all its parts to predatory, 
incursions, and he was persuaded, they would see that a 
regular force of twenty-five thousand men was not much too 
great during a period of war, if all designs of invading the 
provinces of the enemy were abandoned. ^ ^ ^ 

" The object of the force, he understood distinctly to be 
war, and war with Great Britain. It had been supposed by 
some gentlemen, improper to discuss publicly so delicate a 
question. He did not feel the impropriety. It was a sub- 
ject in its nature incapable of concealment. Even in coun- 
tries where the powers of government were conducted by a 
single ruler, it was almost impossible for that ruler to con- 
ceal his intentions when he meditates w^ar. The assembling 
of armies, the strengthening of posts — all the movements 
preparatory to war, and which it is impossible to disguise, 
unfolded the intentions of the sovereign. Does Russia or 
France intend war : the intention is almost invariably known 
before the war is commenced. If Congress were to pass a 
law, with closed doors, for raising an army for the purpose 
of war, its enlistment and organization, which could not be 
done in secret, would indicate the use to which it was to be 
applied ; and we could not suppose England would be so 
blind, as not to see that she was aimed at. Nor could she, 
did she apprehend, injure us more by thus knowing our pur- 
poses, than if she were kept in ignorance of them. She 
may, indeed, anticipate us, and commence the war. But 



" SAxM:" or, the History of Mystery. .505 

that is what she is in fact doing, and she can add hut little 
to the injury which she is infiictino-. If she chooso to declare 
war in form, let her do so — the responsibility will ho with 
her." 

The purpose of this measure having been avowed, all the 
questions of expediency in the nation's taking so momentous 
a step, of course came up for consideration, and were 
required to be solved — of which that of the public finances 
was not among the least. Was the nation prepared for the 
cost? As a matter of fact, the foreign commerce of tlie 
country, and as a consequence the public revenue, were almost 
entirely ruined by the belligerents. The revenue had fallen 
from sixteen millions to six, and it was scarcely possible to be 
worse. The wrongs inflicted on the country by the operation 
of the British orders in council and the French decrees, were 
not only disastrous to the public revenue, but equally so to 
the interests of private individuals, by the seizure, adjudica- 
tion, and forfeiture of their property afloat on the high seas, 
under plea of a violation of those orders and decrees. The 
business of the country, and the wheels of the government, 
were both in a fair way of being stopped. Things, indeed, 
had come to such a pass, by the operation of these causes, that 
apart from peril of life, and injury to public morals, and as a 
simple question of finance, it was scarcely possible that war 
should not make business, and pay for itself, so far as it 
respected the nation at large, though it should run the gov- 
ernment in debt. In such a state of thino;s it could not be 
worse. 

There was national character, too ; honor, a nation's best 
treasure, trampled under foot, and kicked about Europe as a 
despicable thing. There were thousands of American sailors, 
forced into the British navy, and compelled to fight the bat- 
tles of the British sovereign, without remedy, without hope. 
To the ruin of American commerce were added indignity to 
the nation, by disregarding its remonstrances, and tlie viola- 
tion of the personal rights of American citizens, by depriving 
them of freedom, and forcing them into a service where they 
owed no allegiance, to the peril of their lives, and the 
destruction of their fortunes — holding them in captivity from 
country, home, and friends. And when the French decree«^ 
were revoked, as respected American commerce, the British 
43 



506 " Sam : '^ or, the History oi'' Mystery. 

government held the American government responsible for 
their revocation as respected all other nations, before thej 
wonld repeal the orders in conncil ! In view of this state of 
things, Mr. Chiy said : 

"England is said to be fighting for the world, and shall 
we, it is asked, attempt to weaken her exertions ? If, indeed, 
the aim of the French emperor be universal dominion (and 
lie was willing to allow it to the argument), how much nobler 
a cause is presented to British valor ! But how is her philan- 
thropic purpose to be achieved? By a scrupulous observance 
of the rights of others ; bj respecting that code of public law 
which she professes to vindicate : and b}^ abstaining from self- 
aggrandizement. Then would she command the sympathies 
of the world. What are we required to do by those who 
would engage our feelings and wishes in her behalf? To 
bear the actual cuiFs of her arrogance, that we may escape a 
chimerical French subjugation! We are invited, conjured, to 
to drink the potion of British poison, actually presented to 
our lips, that we may avoid the imperial dose prepared by 
perturbed imaginations. We are called upon to submit to 
debasement, dishonor, and disgrace ; to bow the neck to royal 
insolence, as a course of preparation for manly resistance to 
Gallic invasion ! What nation, what individual, was ever 
taught, in the schools of ignominious submission, these patri- 
otic lessons of freedom and independence? Let those who 
contend for this humiliating doctrine, read its refutation in 
the history of the very man against whose insatiable thirst 
of dominion we are warned. The experience of desolated 
Spain, for the last fifteen years, is worth volumes. Did she 
find her repose and safety in subserviency to the will of that 
man? Had she boldly stood forth and repelled the first 
attempt to dictate to her councils, her monarch would not be 
now a miserable captive in Marseilles. Let us come home 
to our own history : it was not by submission that our fathers 
achieved our independence. The patriotic wisdom that placed 
you, Mr. Chairman, under that canopy, penetrated the designs 
of a corrupt ministry, and nobly fronted encroachment on its 
first appearance. It saw, beyond the petty taxes with which 
it commenced, a long train of oppressive measures, termin- 
ating in the total annihilation of liberty, and, contemptible 
as they were, it did not hesitate to resist them. Take the 



" Sam : " OR, THE History of Mystery. 507 

experience of tlie last four or five years, which ho was sorry 
to say exhibited, in appearance at least, a different kind of 
spirit. He did not wish to view the past, farther than to 
guide us for the future. We were but yesterday contending 
for the indirect trade— the right to export to" Europe the 
coifee and sugar of the West Indies. To-day we are assert^ 
ing our claim to the direct trade — the riglit to export our 
cotton, tobacco, and other domestic produce," to market. Yield 
this point, and to-morrow intercourse between New York and 
New Orleans, between the planters on James river and Eicli- 
mond, will be interdicted. For, sir, the career of encroach- 
ment is never arrested by submission. It will advance while 
there remains a single privilege on which it can operate. 
Gentlemen say that this government is unfit for any war, 
but a war of invasion. What, is it not equivalent to invasion, 
if the mouths of our harbors and outlets are blocked up, and 
w^e are denied egress from our own waters ? Or, when the 
burglar is at our door, sliall we bravely sally forth and repel 
his felonious entrance, or meanly skulk within the cells of 
the castle ? '-^ * * ^ o 

" He [Mr. Clay] was one, who was prepared (and he would 
not believe that he was more so than any other member of 
the committee) to march on in the road of his duty, at all 
hazards. What ! shall it be said, that our ajnor patrice is 
located at these desks ; that we pusillanimously cling to our 
seats here, rather than boldly vindicate the most inestimable 
rights of the country? While the heroic Daviess, and his 
gallant associates, exposed to all the dangers of treacherous, 
savage warfare, are sacrificing themselves for the good of 
their country, shall we shrink from our duty ?'^ 

When the army-bill was disposed of, a navy -bill came up, 
which, among other objects, proposed to build a blank number 
of frigates. The most important question was the filling up 
of this blank. Mr. Cheves, of South Carolina, moved for tlie 
number of ten. Mr. Kliea, of Tennessee, moved to strike 
out this section, which was negatived by a vote of 52 to 47 — 
a test vote. It was during the pendency of Mr. Rliea's 
motion, that Mr. Clay addressed the committee against it, 
and in favor of the proposal of Mr. Cheves. Mr. CLay said : 

'' The attention of Congress has been invited to this 
subject by the president, in liis message, delivered at the 



508 "Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

opening of tlie session. Indeed, had it been wholly neglected 
by tlie chief magistrate, from the critical situation of the 
country, and the nature of the rights proposed to be vindi- 
cated, it must have pressed itself upon our attention. But, 
said Mr. Clay, the president, in his message, observes : ' Your 
attention will, of course, be drawn to such provisions on the 
subject of our naval force, as may be required for the service 
to which it is best adapted. I submit to Congress the rea- 
sonableness, also, of an authority to augment the stock of 
such materials as are imperishable in their nature, or may 
not, at once, be attainable?' The president, by this recom- 
mendation, clearly intimates an opinion, that the naval force 
of this country is capable of producing effect ; and the pro- 
priety of laying up imperishable materials was no doubt 
suggested for the purpose of making additions to the navy, 
as convenience and exigencies might direct. 

" It appeared to Mr. Clay a little extraordinary, that so 
much, as it seemed to him, unreasonable jealousy, should 
exist against the naval establishment. If, said he, we look 
back to the period of the formation of the constitution, it will 
be found that no such jealousy was then excited. In placing 
the physical force of the nation at the disposal of Congress, 
the convention manifested much greater apprehension of 
abuse in the power given to raise armies, than in that to 
provide a navy. In reference to the navy. Congress is put 
under no restrictions ; but with respect to the army, that 
description of force which has been so often employed to sub- 
vert the liberties of mankind, they are subjected to limita- 
tions designed to prevent the abuse of this dangerous power. 
But it was not his intention to detain the committee by a dis- 
cussion on the comparative utility and safety of these two 
kinds of force. He would, however, be indulged in saying, 
that he thought gentlemen had wholly failed in maintaining 
the position they had assumed, that the fall of maritime 
powers was attributable to their navies. They have told you, 
indeed, that Carthage, Genoa, Venice, and other nations, had 
navies, and, notwithstanding, were finally destroyed. But 
have they shown, by a train of argument, that their overthrow 
was in any degree attributable to their maritime greatness? 
Have they attempted, even, to show that there exists in the 
nature of this power a necessary tendency to destroy the 



*'Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 509 

nation using it? Assertion is substituted for argument; 
inferences not authorized by historical facts are arbitrarily 
drawn ; things wholly unconnected with each other are asso- 
ciated together: a very logical mode of reasoning, it must 
be admitted ! In the same way he could demonstrate how 
idle and absurd our attachments arc to freedom itself. He 
might say, for example, that Grreece and Pwome had forms 
of free government, and that they no longer exist : and, 
deducing their fall from their devotion to liberty, the conclu- 
sion, in favor of despotism, would very satisfactorily follow! 
He demanded what there is in the nature and construction 
of maritime power, to excite the fears that have been 
indulged? Do gentlemen really apprehend, that a body of 
seamen will abandon their proper element, and placing them- 
selves under an aspiring chief, will erect a throne to his 
ambition ? Will they deign to listen to the voice of history, 
and learn how chimerical are their apprehensions ? 

"But the source of alarm is in ourselves. Gentlemen fear, 
that if we provide a marine, it will produce collisions with 
foreign nations, plunge us into war, and ultimately overturn 
the constitution of the country. Sir, if you wish to avoid 
foreign collision, you had better abandon the ocean surrender 
all your commerce; give up all your prosperity. It is the 
thing protected, not the instrument of protection, that involves 
you in war. Commerce engenders collision, collision war, and 
war, the argument supposes, leads to despotism. Would the 
counsels of that statesman be deemed wise, who would rec- 
ommend that the nation should be unarmed; that the art of 
war, the martial spirit, and martial exercises, should be pro- 
hibited ; who should declare, in the language of Othello, that 
the nation must bid farewell to the neighing steed, and the 
shrill trump, the spirit-stirring drum, the ear-piercing fife, 
and all the pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war ; 
and that the great body of the people should be taught, that 
national happmess was to be found in perpetual peace alone ? 
No, sir. Ajid yet, every argument in favor of a power of 
protection on land, applies in some degree to a power of 
protection on the sea. Undoubtedly, a commerce void of 
naval protection is more exposed to rapacity than a guarded 
commerce ; and if we wish to invite the continuance of the 
old, or the enactment of new edicts, let us refrain from all 



510 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

exertion upon that element where we must operate, ar.d 
where, in the end, they must be resisted/' 

It can not but be seen that this debate is greatly instruct- 
ive, not alone as it shows the position occupied by Mr. Clay, 
but as it discloses the position of the country, at the time, 
the views of public policy entertained by existing parties, 
the untried condition and ability of the naval force, the want 
of faith in that arm of the public service, and the difficulties 
which were to be encountered in raising it from infancy to 
manhood, and sending it out boldly to assert the rights and 
exemplify the valor of the nation on the deep. 

It is clear enough, that Mr. Clay, though speaker of the 
House of Representatives, and sufficiently tasked in that capac- 
ity, was also a leader in debates, and leader of the party dis- 
posed to stir up the nation to a trial of strength with at least 
one of the great transatlantic belligerents, both of which had 
done such wrongs, and offered such insults, to the people and 
government of the United States. The House was accustomed 
to go into committee — thus relieving Mr. Clay from the duties 
of speaker — for the purpose of giving him opportunities to 
express his views on any pending measures, and of availing 
itself of the benefit of his counsels, and of his stirring elo- 
quence. Fresh from the bosom of the patriotic and gallant 
people of the west, himself not behind in these lofty senti- 
ments, animated by the ardor and nerved with the vigor of 
a young statesman, endowed with such facilities of persuasion 
as few men ever possessed, sensitive, not less to public than 
to private honor, thoroughly informed in the foreign relations 
of the government and the capabilities of the United States, 
Mr. Clay viewed with mortification the position of the country. 
and looked with scorn and indignation at the wrongs and in- 
sults of Great Britain and France, which had placed it there 
Unused to arms since the national independence was acquired, 
and that great battle having been fought for freedom — for 
the " lives, fortunes, and sacred honor " of the people — it was 
a great probleui what might be the result of a conflict waged 
on such grounds as were at this time presented, and a great re- 
sponsibility in pushing the nation into it. But the alterna- 
tives were only two : commercial ruin and national debasement 
on the one hand, or bearding the British lion in his den, on 
the other. A young nation born into existence by agony from 



"Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 511 

which there was no escape, was now to measure weapons with 
the oldest and most powerful empire on earth, in defence of 
its honor. The responsibility of a leader in such an enter- 
prise was great. 

Having just come out of the debate on a measure for 
raising a suitable land force, about which all reasoninirs 
could be based on some tangible probabilities, the navy was 
a subject which could not but be regarded with extreme con- 
cern, in a war with " the mistress of the seas." And yet it 
was a subject that must be approached, in a preparation for 
such a war ; and it presented a question that must be dis- 
posed of. Should the sea be abandoned to the foe, and its 
road to national wealth and greatness be surrendered to tlie 
sole travel of an arrogant highwayman? Or should a youno- 
nation, reduced by a visionary policy to gun-boat tactics and 
garrison defenses, like a chicken on a dunghill defying the 
hawk that is sailing downward on his prey, go out in such a 
field against such odds ? It is no wonder that discourao-e- 
ment, and a feeling like dismay, should have pervaded so 
many minds at the prospect. To begin to build a navy, at 
the moment of going into war with the greatest maritime 
power in the world, was indeed a bold proposal— apparently 
bordering on presumption. But it was a necessity, before 
the face of which patriotism could not flee — a doom wluch 
national gallantry was forced to encounter. 

We come now to the discussions in regard to building the 
navy, with the view of chastising the insolence of John Bull 
upon the seas, to the sole dominion and undivided rights 
upon which he had chosen to assert his domineering sov- 
reignty. 

The following remarks of Mr. Clay, on the importance of 
foreign commerce to the people and government of the coun- 
try, and on the intimate connection between a commercial 
and military marine, are not more forcibly stated than true : 

"He considered the prosperity of foreign commerce indis- 
solubly allied to the marine power. Neglect to provide tlie 
one, and you must abandon the other. Suppose the expected 
war with Eno-land is commenced, you enter and subjugate 
Canada, and slie still refuses to do you justice; what other 
possible mode will remahi to operate on the enemy, but upon 
that element where alone you can then come in contact with 



512 *' Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

him? And if you do not prepare to protect there your own 
commerce, and to assail his, will he not sweep from the ocean 
every vessel bearing your flag, and destroy even the coast- 
ing trade? But, from the arguments of gentlemen, it 
would seem to be questioned, if foreign commerce is worth 
the kind of protection insisted upon. What is this foreign 
commerce, that has suddenly become so inconsiderable ? It 
has, with very trifling aid from other sources, defrayed the 
expenses of government, ever since the adoption of the pre- 
sent constitution ; maintained an expensive and successful 
war with the Indians ; a war with the Barbary powers ; a 
quasi war with France ; sustained the charges of suppress- 
ing two insurrections, and extinguishing upward of forty-six 
millions of the public debt. In revenue, it has, since the 
year 1789, yielded one hundred and ninety-one millions of 
dollars. During the first four years after the commence- 
ment of the present government, the revenue averaged only 
about two millions annually ; during a subsequent period of 
four years, it rose to an average of fifteen millions, annu- 
ally, or became equivalent to a capital of two hundred and 
fifty millions of dollars, at an interest of six per centum per 
annum. And if our commerce be re-established, it will, in 
the course of time, net a sum for which we are scarcely fur- 
nished with figures, in arithmetic. Taking the average of 
the last nine years (comprehending, of course, the season of 
the embargo), our exports average upward of thirty-seven 
millions of dollars, which is equivalent to a capital of more 
than six hundred millions of dollars, at six per centum in- 
terest ; all of which must be lost in the event of a destruc- 
tion of foreio-n commerce. In the abandonment of that 
commerce, is also involved the sacrifice of our brave tars, 
who have engaged in the pursuit, from which they derive 
subsistence and support, under the confidence that govern- 
ment would afibrd them that just protection which is due to 
all. They will be driven into foreign employment, for it is 
vain to expect that they will renounce their habits of life. 

" The spirit of commercial enterprise, so strongly depicted 
by the gentleman from New York [Mr. Mitchell], is difiused 
throughout the country. It is a passion, as unconquerable as 
any with which nature has endowed us. You may attempt, 
indeed, to regulate, but you can not destroy it. It exhibits 



" Sam: " OR, THE History of Mystery. 513 

itself as well on the waters of the western country, as on 
the waters and shores of the Atlantic. Mr. Clay had heard 
of a vessel, built at Pittsburg, having crossed the Atlantic 
and entered a European port (he believed that of Leghorn). 
The master of the vessel laid his papers before the proper 
customhouse officer, which, of course, stated the place of her 
departure. The officer boldly denied the existence of any 
such American port as Pittsburg, and threatened a seizure 
of the vessel, as being furnished with forged papers. The 
affrighted master procured a map of the United States, and 
pointing out the Gulf of Mexico, took the officer to the 
mouth of the Mississippi, traced the course of the Missis- 
sippi more than a thousand miles, to the mouth of the Ohio, 
and conducting him still a thousand miles higher, to the 
junction of the Alleghany and the Monongahela — 'There,' 
he exclaimed, 'stands Pittsburg, the port from which I 
sailed !''' 

The efforts of Mr. Clay in Congress, and in all his private 
relations, during this season of preparation for war, were 
unremitting, desiring to go into it with unanimity and vigor, 
that it might end with honor and the achievement of the 
objects of the conflict. 

When war was declared, the manifest importance of 
having at the head of the army a man of talents, decision, 
energy, and weight of character, notwithstanding Mr. Clay 
had been trained exclusively in the civil service, suggested 
to the mind of President Madison, that he was the man, and 
he had made up his mind to send in his name to the Senate 
for the office of major-general. Mr. Gallatin — though he 
and Mr. Clay have never been on the best of terms — is 
understood to have said, that he knew of no man so prompt 
and fruitful in expedients for an exigency, as Mr. Clay — a 
qualification, of all others, the most important for a military 
captain. This is the universal opinion of his character, and 
it has been sufficiently proved. Mr. Madison, doubtless, had 
made this discovery, and it is an interesting subject of hypo- 
thetical review^ what would probably have been the result, 
if Mr. Clay had been put in this important position. None 
who know the man can doubt, that the utmost activity and 
energy would have been displayed in the military operations 
of the countrv. and that the war mio;ht have been brous^ht 



514 '' Sam: '' or, the History of Mystery. 

to a close in lialf the time and at half the expense. What 
other consequences might have followed in Mr. Clay's civil 
history, after having worn an epaulet and sword, with credit 
to liimself and henefit to his country, is matter of innocent 
conjecture. Mr. Madison, however, w^as dissuaded from his 
purpose, on the ground that Mr. Clay's services were indis- 
pensahle in the national councils. The president tendered 
to him the mission to Russia, for important public purposes, 
after the war, and afterward one of the executive depart- 
ments, both of which were declined — doubtless for the rea- 
sons which had induced him to decline the more elevated and 
dignified position of a senator, for the more useful one of a 
commoner. Mr. Monroe afterward offered j\Ir. Clay a secre- 
taryship at home, and a carte blanche of all the foreign mis- 
sions ; but he preferred the House of Representatives. 

It is wxdl known, that the first year of the war was not 
very creditable to the American arms, and that it was dis- 
heartening to the spirit of the country. The opposition, in 
Congress, heaped upon the administration 7^epvachfid censure 
for having engaged in the war, which roused Mr. Clay, not 
only to its vindication, but to some vehement expressions of 
patriotic indignation. In January, 1813, a bill was before 
Congress, to increase the army by twenty additional regi- 
ments. On the 8th of this month, in committee of the 
whole, Mr. Clay noticed these attacks on the government, 
and replied to some invectives on the merits of the war. 

In recording the services of a statesman, in peace or war, 
he is to be represented in the field which he occupies, or in 
which he enacts his part. The roar of artillery and the 
clash of steel are not in the senate of a nation ; but there 
are battles even there. The statesman who sways the coun- 
cils of his country, by his wisdom and eloquence, occupies a 
position more lofty and more commanding, than any other 
public agent. Armies are raised and moved, and fleets scour 
the seas, for pacific functions, or in search of the foe, under 
his orders. He is forced to look on all at home, and all 
abroad — to secure, protect, and vindicate domestic interests 
and rights, against foreign policies and foreign aggressions. 
His tent is the canopy of heaven, and his field the world. 
He fights in war, and fights in peace. There is no repose 
for him who guards with vigilance and fidelity the public weal. 



" Sam: ^' or, the History of Mystery. 515 

The position which Mr. Clay occupied in the war of 1812, 
was eminent. That he had been eminently influential in its 
inception, and in committing the nation to the hazard, could 
not be unknown ; and in view of the adverse events of its 
early history, the opponents of the war and of the adminis- 
tration, fell heavily upon him who had been so active in 
bringing it about. He thus replies : 

" Sir, gentlemen appear to me to forget, that they stand 
on American soil ; that they are not in the British House of 
Commons, but in the chamber of the House of Kepresenta- 
tives of the United States ; that we have nothino; to do with 
the affairs of Europe, the partition of territory and sove- 
reignty there, except so far as these things affect the inter- 
ests of our own countr}^ Gentlemen transform themselves 
into the Burkes, Chathams, and Pitts of another country, 
and forgetting, from honest zeal, the interests of America, 
engage with European sensibility in the discussion of 
European interests. If gentlemen ask me, whether I do 
not view with regret and horror the concentration of such 
vast power in the hands of Bonaparte, I reply, that I do. I 
regret to see the emperor of China holding such immense 
sway over the fortunes of millions of our species. I regret 
to see Great Britain possessing so uncontrolled a command 
over all the waters of our globe. If I had the ability to 
distribute among the nations of Europe their several portions 
of power and sovereignty, I would say that Holland should 
be resuscitated, and given the weight she enjoyed in the days 
of her De Witts. I would confine Erance within her natural 
boundaries, the Alps, Pyrenees, and the Ehine, and make 
her a secondary naval power only. I would abridge the 
British maritime power, raise Prussia and Austria to their 
original condition, and preserve the integrity of the empire 
of Russia. But these are speculations. I look at the politi- 
cal transactions of Europe, with the single exception of their 
possible bearing upon ns, as I do at the history of other 
countries, or other times. I do not survey them with half 
the interest that I do the movements in South America. 
Our political relation with them is much less important than 
it is supposed to be. I have no fears of French or English 
subjugation. If we are united, we are too powerful for the 
mightiest nation in Europe, or all Europe combined. If we 



516 "Sam:^' or, the History of Mystery. 

are separated and torn asunder, we shall become an easy prey 
to tlie weakest of them. In the latter dreadful contingency, 
our country will not be worth preserving. 

" Next to the notice which the opposition has found itself 
called upon to bestow upon the French emperor, a distin- 
guished citizen of Virginia, formerly president of the United 
States, has never for a moment failed to receive their kind- 
est and and most respectful attention. An honorable gentle- 
man from Massachusetts, [Mr. Quincy,] of whom I am sorry 
to say, it becomes necessary for me, in the course of my 
remarks, to take some notice, has alluded to him in a remark- 
able manner. Neither his retirement from public office, his 
eminent services, nor his advanced age, can exempt this pat- 
riot from the coarse assaults of party malevolence. No, sir. 
In 1801, he snatched from the rude hand of usurpation the 
violated constitution of his country, and that is his crime. 
He preserved that instrument, in form, and substance, and 
spirit, a precious inheritance for generations to come ; and for 
this he can never be forgiven. How vain and impotent is 
party rage, directed against such a man ! He is not more 
elevated by his lofty residence upon the summit of his own 
favorite mountain, than he is lifted, by the serenity of his 
mind, and the consciousness of a well-spent life, above the 
malignant passions and bitter feelings of the day. No ! his 
own beloved Monticello is not less moved by the storms that 
beat against its sides, than is this illustrious man by the 
bowlings of the whole British pack, set loose from tlie Essex 
kennel ! When the gentleman to whom I have been com- 
pelled to allude, shall have mingled his dust with that of 
his abused ancestors, when he shall have been consigned to 
oblivion, or, if he lives at all, shall live only in the treason- 
able annals of a certain junto, the name of Jefferson will 
be hailed with gratitude, his memory honored and cherished 
as the second founder of the liberties of the people, and the 
period of his administration will be looked back to, as one 
of the happiest and brightest epochs of American history — 
an oasis in the midst of a sandy desert. But I beg the 
gentleman^s pardon ; he has indeed secured to himself a 
more imperishable fame than I had supposed : I think it was 
about four years ago that he submitted to the House of Eep- 
resentatives, an initiative proposition for the impeachment of 



'' Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 517 

i\Ii*. Jc'tforson. The House condescended to consider it. The 
gentleman debated it with his usual temper, moderation, and 
urbanity. The House decided upon it in the most solemn 
manner, and, although the gentleman had somehow obtained 
a second, the final vote stood, ONE for, and one hundred and 
seventeen against, the proposition I '■••= =••■' ^'•' 

'' Bat, sir, I must speak of another subject, which I never 
think of but with feelings of the deepest awe. The gentle- 
man from Massachusetts, in imitation of some of his prede- 
cessors of 1799, has entertained us with a picture of cabinet 
.jlots, presidential plots, and all sorts of plots, which ]iave 
been engendered by the diseased state of the gentleman's 
imagination. I wish, sir, that another plot, of a much more 
serious and alarming character — a plot that aims at the dis- 
memberment of our Union — had only the same imaginary 
existence. But no man who has paid any attention to the 
tone of certain prints, and to transactions in a particular 
quarter of the Union, for several years past, can doubt the 
existence of such a plot. It was far, very far, from my 
intention to charge the opposition with such a design. No, 
I believe them generally incapable of it. Bnt I cannot say 
as much for some, who have been unvrorthily associated with 
them, in the quarter of the Union to which I have referred. 
The gentleman can not have forgotten his own sentiment, 
uttered even on the floor of this House, ' Peaceably if we can, 
forcibly if we must,' nearly at the very time Henry's mis- 
sion to Boston was undertaken. The flaoitiousness of that 
embassy had been attempted to be concealed, by directing 
the public attention to the price which, the gentleman says, 
was given for the disclosure. As if any price could change 
the atrociousness of the attempt on the part of Great Britain, 
or could extenuate, in the slightest degree, the offense of 
those citizens who entertained and deliberated upon a propo- 
sition so infamous and unnatural I There was a most 
remarkable coincidence between some of the things wliicli 
that man states, and certain events in the quarter alluded 
to. In the contingency of war with Great Britain, it will 
be recollected, that the neutrality and eventual separation of 
that section of the Union was to be brought about. How, sir, 
has it happened, since the declaration of war, that British 
officers in Canada have asserted to American officers, that this 



518 *' Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

very neutrality would take place ? That they have so asserted 
can be established beyond controversy. The project is not 
brought forward openly, with a direct avowal of the intention. 
No, the stock of good sense and patriotism in that portion of 
the country is too great to be undisguisedly encountered. It 
is assailed from the masked batteries of friendship, of peace 
and commerce, on the one side, and by the groundless impu- 
tation of opposite propensities on the other. The affections 
of the people there are to be gradually undermined. The 
project is suggested or withdrawn ; the diabolical dramatis 
personce, in this criminal tragedy, make their appearance or 
exit, as the audience to whom they address themselves, ap- 
plaud or condemn. I was astonished, sir, in reading lately, 
a letter, or pretended letter, published in a prominent print 
in that quarter, and written, not in the fervor of party zeal, 
but coolly and dispassionately, to find that the writer affected 
to reason about a separation, and attempted to demonstrate 
its advantages to the different portions of the Union — deplor- 
ing the existence now of what he terms prejudices against it, 
but hoping for the arrival of the period when they shall be 
eradicated. But, sir, I will quit this unpleasant subject. 

" The war was declared because Great Britain arrogated 
to herself the pretension of regulating our foreign trade, 
under the delusive name of retaliatory orders in council — a 
pretension by which she undertook to proclaim to American 
enterprise, ' Thus far shalt thou go, and no further ' — orders 
which she refused to revoke, after the alleged cause of their 
enactment had ceased ; because she persisted in the practice 
of impressing American seamen ; because she had instigated 
the Indians to commit hostilities against us ; and because she 
refused indemnity for her past injuries upon our commerce. 
I throw out of the question other wrongs. The war, in fact, 
was announced, on our part, to meet the war which she was 
waging on her part. So undeniable were the causes of the 
war, so powerfully did they address themselves to the feel- 
ings of the whole American people, that when the bill was 
pending before this House, gentlemen in the opposition, 
although provoked to debate, would not, or could not, utter 
one syllable against it. It is true, they wrapped themselves 
up in sullen silence, pretending they did not choose to debate 



*' Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 511) 

such a question in secret session. While speaking of the 
proceedings on that wcasion, I beg to be admitted to advert 
to another fact which transpired — an important fact, material 
for the nation to know, and which I have often regretted had 
not been spread upon our journals. My honorable colleague 
[Mr. McKee] moved, in committee of the whole, to compre- 
hend France in the war ; and when the question was taken 
upon the proposition, there appeared but ten votes in support 
of it, of whom seven belonged to this side of the house, and 
three only to the other ! It is said that we were inveigled 
into the war by the perfidy of France ; and that, had she 
furnished the document in time, which was first published in 
England, in May last, it would have been prevented. I will 
concede to gentlemen everything they ask about the injustice 
of France toward this country. I wish to God that our 
ability was equal to our disposition to make her feel the 
sense that we entertain of that injustice. The manner of 
the publication of the paper in question, was, undoubtedly, 
extremely exceptionable. But I maintain, that, had it made 
its appearance earlier, it would not have had the effect sup- 
posed ; and the proof lies in the unequivocal declarations of 
the British government. I will trouble you, sir, with going 
no further back than to the letters of the British minister, 
addressed to the Secretary of State, just before the expiration 
of his diplomatic functions. It will be recollected by the 
committee, that he exhibited to this government a dispatch 
from Lord Castlereagh, in which the principle was distinctly 
avowed that, to produce the effect of a repeal of the orders 
in council, the French decrees must be absolutely and entirely 
revoked as to all the world, and not as to America alone. A 
copy of that despatch was demanded of him, and he very awk- 
wardly evaded it. But on the lOtli of June, after the bill 
declaring war had actually passed this House, and was pending 
before the Senate, (and which, I have no doubt, was known 
to him,) in a letter to Mr. Munroe, he says: ' I have no hesi- 
tation in saying, sir, that Great Britain, as the case has 
hitherto stood, never did, and never could, engage, without 
the greatest injustice to herself and her allies, as well as to 
other neutral nations, to repeal her orders, as affecting America 
alone, leaving them in force against other states, upon con- 
dition that France would except, singly and specially, America 



520 '' Sam :" or, the History of Mystery. 

from the operation of her decrees/ On the 14th of the same 
month, the bill still pending before the Senate, he repeats: 
' I will now saj, that I feel entirely authorized to assure you, 
that if you can, at any time, produce a full and unconditional 
repeal of the French decrees, as you have a right to demand 
it, in your character of a neutral nation, and tliat it be dis- 
engaged from any question concerning our maritime rights, 
we shall be ready to meet you with a revocation of the orders 
in council. Previously to your producing such an instrument, 
which I am sorry to see you regard as unnecessary, you can 
not expect of us to give up our orders in council.' Thus, sir, 
you see that the British government would not be content 
with a repeal of the French decrees as to us only. But the 
French paper in question was such a repeal. It could not, 
therefore, satisfy the British government. It could not, 
therefore, have induced that government, had it been earlier 
promulgated, to repeal the orders in council. It could not, 
therefore, have averted the war. The withholding of it did 
"not occasion the war, and the promulgation of it would not 
have prevented the war. But gentlemen have contended, 
that, in point of fact, it did produce a repeal of the orders in 
council. This I deny. After it made its appearance in Eng- 
land, it was declared by one of the British ministry, in Par- 
liament, not to be satisfactory. And all tlie world knows 
that the repeal of the orders in council resulted from the 
inquiry, reluctantly acceded to by the ministry, into the effect 
upon their manufacturing establishments, of our non-impor- 
tation law, or to the warlike attitude assumed by this gov- 
ernment, or to both. ^'' ^'^ ^^ ^'^ * 
" It is not to the British principle [of allegiance], objec- 
tionable as it is, that we are alone to look ; it is to her 
practice ; no matter what guise she puts on. It is in vain to 
assert the inviolability of the obligation of allegiance. It is 
vain to set up the plea of necessity, and to allege that she 
cannot exist without the impressment of her seamen. The 
naked truth is, she comes, by her press-gangs, on board of 
our vessels, seizes OUR native as well as naturalized seamen, 
and drags them into her service. It is the case, then, of the 
assertion of an erroneous principle, and of a practice not 
conformable to the asserted principle — a principle which, if 
it were theoretically right, must be forever practically wrong 



" Sam : ^' or, the History of Mystery. 521 

— a practice which can obtain countenance from no principle 
whatever, and to submit to which, on our part, wouhl betray 
the most abject degradation. We are tokl, by gentlemen in 
the opposition, that government has not done all that was 
incumbent on it to do, to avoid just cause of complaint on 
the part of Great Britain ; that in particular the certificates 
of protection, authorized by the act of 1796, are fraudulently 
used. Sir, government has done too much, in granting those 
paper protections. I can never think of them without being 
shocked. They resemble the passes which the master grants 
to his negro slave : ' Let the bearer, Mungo, pass and repass 
without molestation.' What do they imply ? That Great 
Britain has a right to seize all who are not provided with 
them. From their very nature, they must be liable to abuse 
on both sides. If Great Britain desires a mark by which 
she can know her own subjects, let her give them an ear 
mark. The colors that float from the mast-head should be 
the credentials of our seamen. There is no safety to us, and 
the gentlemen have shown it, but in the rule that all who 
sail under the flag (not being enemies) are protected by the 
flag. It is impossible that this country should ever abandon 
the gallant tars, who have won for us such splendid trophies. 
Let me suppose that the genius of Columbia should visit one 
of them in his oppressor's prison, and attempt to reconcile 
him to his forlorn and wretched condition. She would say 
to him, in the language of gentlemen on the other side : 
' Great Britain intends you no harm ; she did not mean to 
impress you, but one of her own subjects; having taken you 
by mistake, I will remonstrate, and try to prevail upon her, 
by peaceable means, to release you ; but I can not, my son, 
fight for you.' If he did not consider this mere mocker}', the 
poor tar would address her judgment, and say : ' You owe me, 
my country, protection ; I owe you, in return, obedience. I 
am no British subject: I am a native of old Massachusetts, 
where lived my aged father, my wife, my children. I have 
faithfully discharged my duty. Will you refuse to do yours ?' 
Appealing to her passions he would continue : ' I lost tliis eye 
in flo'htino; under Truxton, with the Insuro-ente ; I <;ot this 
scar before Tripoli ; I broke this leg on board the Constitu- 
tion, when the Guerriere struck.' If she remained still 
44 



522 "Sam:^' or, the History of Mystery. 

unmoved, he would break out in the accents of mingled dis- 
tress and despair, 

' Hard, hard is my fate ! once I freedom enjoyed, 
Was as happy as happy couLl be ! 
Oh ! how hard is my fate, how galling these chains !' 

I will not imagine the dreadful catastrophe to which he would 
be driven by an abandonment of him to his oppressor. It 
will not be, it cannot be that his country will refuse him 
protection.'' 

Having shown by documentary evidence that there was 
nothing in the alleged repeal of the British orders in council 
that could constitute a ground of pacification, Mr. Clay pro- 
ceeded to the consideration of other points of attack from the 
opposition. The focus of the fires that were poured in, he 
sent back his scorching flames on the assailants of the admin- 
istration. When they averred that those most interested in 
impressment were most opposed to the war, he taunted this 
lack of humanity, and pointed to the sympathy of the West, to 
shame them for such an avowal. He could not believe they 
would so libel themselves, or that they had done justice to their 
constituents. Did not the latter sympathise with their western 
brethren, exposed to the Indian tomahawk? No matter 
whether an American citizen seeks subsistence amid the 
dangers of the deep, or draws it from the bowels of tlie 
earth, or from agriculture, or from the humblest occupations 
of mechanic life — whatever be his vocation — the rights of 
American freemen are sacred, and when assailed, all hearts 
should unite, and every arm be braced, to vindicate his cause. 
But the rights of seamen, who brave the hardships and perils 
of the deep, in bold adventure for the common good as well 
as for their own personal advantage, are especially sacred. 

Continuing in this sarcastic vein, well provoked, Mr. Clay 
said : — 

" When the administration was striving, by the operation 
of peaceful measures, to bring Great Britain back to a sense 
of justice, they were for old-fashioned war. And now they have 
got old-fashioned war, their sensibilities are cruelly sliocked 
and all their sympathies lavished upon the harmless inhabit- 
ants of the adjoining provinces. What does a state of war 
present ? The united energies of one people arrayed against 



'' Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 523 

tlie combined energies of another ; a conflict in which each 
party aims to inflict all the injury it can, by sea and land, 
upon the territories, property, and citizens of the other — sub- 
ject only to the rules of mitigated war, practised by civilised 
nations. The gentlemen would not touch the continental 
provinces of the enemy, nor, I presume, for the same reason, 
her possessions in the West Indies. The same humane spirit 
w^ould spare the seamen and soldiers of the enemy. The 
sacred person of his majesty must not be attacked ; for tlie 
learned gentlemen, on the other side, are quite familiar with 
the maxim that the king can do no wrong. Indeed, sir. I 
know of no person on whom we may make war, upon the 
principles of the honorable gentleman, but Mr. Stephen, the 
celebrated author of the orders in council, or the board of 
admiralty, who authorize and regulate the practice of im- 
pressment I 

" The disasters of the war admonish us, we are told, of the 
necessity of terminating the contest. If our achievements 
by land have been less splendid than those of our intrepid 
seamen by water, it is not because the American soldier is 
less brave. On the one element, organization, discipline, and 
a thorough knowledge of their duties, exist, on the part of 
the oflicers and their men. On the other, almost everything 
is yet to be acquired. We have, however, the consolation 
that our country abounds with the richest materials, and that 
in no instance, wdien engaged in action, have our arms been 
tarnished. At Brownstown and at Queensto"\vn, the valor of 
veterans was displayed, and acts of the noblest heroism were 
performed. It is true, that the disgrace of Detroit remains 
to be wiped ofl:'. That is a subject on which I cannot trust 
my feelings ; it is not fitting I should speak. But this much 
I will say, it was an event which no human foresight could 
have anticinated, and for which the administration cannot be 
justly censured. It was the parent of all the misiortunes 
we have experienced on land. But for it, the Indian war 
would have been, in a great measure, prevented or termina- 
ted, the ascendancy on Lake Erie acquired, and the war 
pushed on, perhaps to Montreal. With the exception of that 
event, the war, even upon the land, has been attended by a 
series of the most brilliant exploits." 

Fortunatelv for the countrv, the labors of Mr. Clay and 



524 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

liis coadjutors were not in vain. The navj, on the Atlantic 
and on the lakes, earned for itself an imperishable fame, and 
demonstrated to the full conviction of the American people 
— a most desirable result — the vast importance of sustaining 
and rendering efficient this arm of the national strength. 
The army nobly retrieved its cliaracter, and the war was 
ended in the full blaze of the victory of New Orleans, Jan- 
uary 8, 1815. 

The long period of obscure political travail which now fol- 
lowed, while peace and prosperity blessed our flourishing 
land, is of too complex, and comparatively unimportant a 
character to require that we should dilate upon its events. It 
is sufficient to state, that so soon as peace was firmly estab- 
lished, political agitation took the place, amid the restless 
elements of organization in which we were yet involved, of 
military action. And we were soon complicated amid the 
stormy ferment of United States Bank and Tariflt' discussions, 
the organization and purchase of new territory, the intrigues 
of the Burr conspiracy, and then in rapid succession, secession, 
and French spoliations, under tlie iron rule of Jackson, the 
settlement of Texas, the Missouri question, the compromise 
of Clay, the revolution and annexation of Texas, and finally, 
the war with Mexico, of which the events are of too recent 
date, to require that we should dwell upon, as illustratory 
of the now established prowess of " Sam." We will there- 
fore return, in the conclusion of our volume, to a consideration 
of the incendiary work of the Jesuits, concerning whom we 
have spoken so much, toward the observation of wJiom the 
attention of our people was now sufficiently turned inwardly, 
to be able to give some necessary regard. Their machina- 
tions, which during all this period of external distraction, had 
been unceasing, had now begun to assume a formidable front. 
Strong men rose up in every part of the land to battle with 
them, and to develop the dangerous tend-mcy. 

To say nothing of the famous destruction of the convents, 
by the indignant mob of Baltimore, and the incessant denun- 
ciations which were thundered from the Protestant pulpits, 
and the press, the incessant efforts to exclude the Bible from 
the public schools, which was the avowed and settled policy 
of the Catholic eh rgy, headed by the insolent and presump- 
tuous Irishman, Bishop Huglies. of New York (or rather 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 525 

Cardinal Huglies, as he is no^Y) I their conduct as citizens 
had not ceased to provoke the profoandest indignation, of the 
true chikh^en of " Sam," who at length determined to rid 
themselves of internal foes, who had proved themselves so 
ominous and so dangerous. The attempts to control educa- 
tion, and thereby corrupt Protestant children, had become 
too notorious to be further submitted to. Open war was 
accordingly declared against them, and the vermin horde 
of serfs and ignorant followers, with which they yearly 
swarmed our shores, overrunning the land like the plagues 
of Egypt, it was found necessary to check, as well as their 
patient and continued aggressions upon freedom of conscience, 
and rights of individuals. 

It became necessary for the American-born sons of "Sam" 
to assert their right to the soil upon which they moved and 
breathed and had a being! Their attempts at political inter- 
ference had become an outrage which no reasonable stretch 
of patience could be expected further to endure. 

We have before repeated all that is contained in the sub- 
joined extract, but as it proceeds to more particulars than we 
have yet given, we furnish it, with the context, to our readers. 

The Jesuits, in consequence of their political intrigues, and 
their immoral principles and practices, were expelled success- 
ively by all the governments of Europe. " Wearied at 
length," says Dr. Duft", " and worn out by their unscrupulous 
rapacity and all-grasping ambition — their treachery and 
stratagems — their seductions and briberies — their intrigues 
and cabals — their laxation of public morals, and disturbance 
of social order — their fomenting of seditions, disloyalties and 
rebellions — their instigating massacres, and parricidal cruel- 
ties, and royal assassinations — the monks and courtiers, 
judges and civil magistrates, churches and public scliools, 
princes and emperors of all nations in Europe, Asia, Africa, 
and America — all, all, successively united their efforts in 
sweeping them clean away, and causing their Institute to 
perish from off this earth, and from under these heavens." 
Finally, Pope Clement XIV. was constrained to suppress the 
order in July 1773 — an act which cost him his life ! For in 
a short period he was poisoned by these his implacable ene- 
mies. But in 1814, Pius VII. reinstated this dangerous 
order in all its privileges, and now it is spreading its baleful 



526 " Sam : ^' or, the History of Mystery. 

influence over the whole world. Their repeated expulsions 
from Eoman Catholic governments, and their suppression by 
the Pope, afford sufficient evidence of their dangerous char- 
acter. But let us look at a few unexceptional testimonies 
concerning the moral principles of the order. 

In 164:2, an assembly of Romish clergy at Nantes 
denounced a work by the Jesuit Bauni, "as calculated to 
encourage licentiousness and the corruption of manners ; as 
violating natural equity, and the rights of man, and toler- 
ating blasphemy, usury, simony, and many other enormous 
crimes, as offenses of no magnitude. '^ In 1643, the Romish 
university of Paris declared themselves ready to prove that 
there is no article in relio^ion which the Jesuits have not cor- 
rupted, and do not daily corrupt, by erroneous novelties ; that 
tlie scholastic theology has been depraved by the dangerous 
opinions of their writers, who have had the approbation, or 
at least the connivance of the whole society ; that Christian 
moralit}^ had become a body of problematical opinions, sinco 
their society had undertaken, by a general understanding, to 
accommodate it to the luxury of the age ; that the laws of 
God had been sophisticated by their unheard of subtleties ; 
that there was no longer any difference between vice and 
virtue ; that by a base indulgence, they promised impunity 
to the most flao-rant crime : that there was no conscience. 
however erroneous, wliich might not obtain peace, if it would 
confide in them ; and that, in short, their doctrines, inimical 
to all order, had equally resisted the power of kings and the 
authority of the hierarchy ; that if the light which God had 
placed in all reasonable minds, in order to show the distinc- 
tion between purity and equity, were so far extinguished 
that such a pernicious theology could be universally received — 
in that case deserts and forests would be preferable tu cities ; 
and society with wild beasts, who have only their natural 
arms, would be better than with men who, in addition to the 
violence of their passions, would be instructed by this doc- 
trine of devils to dissimulate and feign, and to counterfeit the 
cliaracters of intimate friends, in order to destroy others with 
the greater impunity." In 1762, the Parliament of Popish 
France gave the following decision : "The court has ordained 
that the passages extracted from the books of one hundred 
and forty-seven Jesuit authors having been verified, a 



*'Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 527 

collected copy shall be presented to his Majesty, that he may 
be made acquainted with the wickedness of the doctrine 
constantly held by the Jesuits, from the institution of their 
society to the present moment, together with the approbation 
of their theologians, the permission of superiors and generals, 
and the praise of other members of the said society — a doc- 
tine authorizing robbery, lying, perjury, impurity — all pas- 
sions and all crimes ; inculcating homicide, parricide, and 
regicide ; overturning religion, in order to substitute in her 
stead, superstition ; and thereby sanctioning magic, blas- 
phemy, irreligion, and idolatry. And his majesty shall be 
most humbly entreated to consider what results from instruc- 
tion so pernicious.'^ 

With regard to the facilities afforded by Jesuit morality for 
violating the seventh commandment, I will only quote the 
lano-uao^e of Dr. Duif : " Hitherto I have been enabled to 
proceed with separate quotations to show how every command- 
ment of the Decalogue may bo violated with impunity. But 
there is one, as to which I must beg to be excused for not 
entering on it at all. It is the seventh. How to violate it 
in its letter and spirit — in thought, word, and deed — in every 
imaginable, and, apart from Jesuit imaginations, every 
unimaginable form — is pointed out in their writings, with a 
minuteness, a loathsomeness, and a pruriency, compared with 
which the most filthy passages in the grossest of the heathen 
poets and satirists bear the stamp and impress of relative 
refinement. It is, in fact, a bottomless abyss of obscenities, 
nudities, criminal liberties, and defiling turpitudes — an abyss 
from which I most gladly hasten away, as from one whose 
very brink is thickly fringed all around with pollution." 

The time would fail me to do anything like justice to this 
dark subject. Let me earnestly request those who are willing 
to know the true character of the morality of the Jesuits, to 
read Dr. Duff's little work on this subject, and especially the 
Provincial Letters of Blaise Pascal, who was a Papist of tlie 
Jansenist order, and an elegant writer. Prom this work, says 
Dugald Stuart, " Voltaire, notwithstanding his strong preju- 
dices against the author, dates the fixation of the French 
language ; of which the same excellent judge has said, 
'Moliere's best comedies do not excel them in wit, nor the 
compositions of Bossuet in sublimity.' 



,r ' y> 



528 " Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

And are these the men to whom American and even Chris- 
tian parents are willing to intrust the training of their 
children? Are such men to have a principal agency in fixing 
in their minds those principles of action by which they are 
to be governed through life ? It is too true, that many, 
unacquainted certainly with their principles, have placed 
their children under their withering influence. Far better 
vv^ould it be to commit their education to men who denounce 
all religion, than to those who, in the name of Jesus, teach 
men how to perpetrate the worst crimes without suffering 
from the lashino-s of a ffuiltv conscience. How can such men 
teach mental and moral science ? It may be said, the 
Jesuits do not, in this country, avow the abominable senti- 
ments attributed to their order. True, they are not likely 
to destroy their influence by an avowal of principles which 
are held in abhorrence in this Protestant country ; but their 
concealment, and their pretended sanctity, only enable them 
the more easily to destroy the morals of the youth committed 
to them. It is impossible that the influence of such men 
shall be other than most mischievous. It has been so from 
the origin of the order, and it will be so, while it has an 
existence. 

Roman institutions will never teach History correctly. 
For more than twelve centuries past, the Pope has been a 
temporal prince, and has used his spiritual power for the 
purposes of self-aggrandizement, and the extension of the 
power, wealth and influence of Rome. He has been quite as 
busily engaged as his cotemporaries in the intrigues, civil 
combinations and alliances that form a considerable part of 
the history of the ages preceding the Reformation. The 
persecutions of the Pope and his clergy, too, constitute a 
prominent part of the history of the past. Who, for exam- 
ple, could write the history of Spain, of Portugal, and of 
Italy, without giving prominence to the horrid Inquisition, 
its officers, its dungeons, its tortures, and its autos da fe? 
Or who could write the history of that wonderful people, the 
Waldenses, without telling of the long-continued, extermina- 
ting persecutions of them, set on foot and kept up by the 
Popes and general councils? Or who will ever be able to 
write the history of our world in the sixteenth century, 
without making the Reformation a most prominent theme, 




UESULT OF THE VIU(ilNIA KLKCTION IV SITilN'G OF 1^" 

ui:.\t>:n — iij: i.i\i> to ciiastizi; tiikm. 



AM HAD I Y 



" Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 529 

and showing how the Pope and his clergy labored to crush 
the spirit of liberty which began then to manifest itself, and 
to claim the right to think and investigate, without being 
trammeled by the decrees of Popes and Councils of the dark 
ages? Who can write the history of England, without 
recording the persectitions of " Bloody Mary?" 

And is it to be expected that the Eoman clergy will allow 
these things to be presented in their true light, before the 
minds of the youth committed to their charge ? Why, the 
history of the past must be, in the view of every man, an 
unanswerable refutation of Rome's pretended infallibility. 
No man can believe the claim well founded, who, before his 
prejudices are excited, reads the history of the doings of 
Rome. 

It may be said, Protestants, too, may have reason for con- 
cealment ; because the churches to which they severallv belono* 
have not always done right. I answer, Protestants do not 
claim infallibility for their churches. They may admit that 
they have erred, and they may record their errors as a 
lesson to the present, and to future generations. There is 
little or no temptation, therefore, to them to falsify history. 

Roman schools will never teach the principles of civil 
and religious liberty, on which the free institutions of our 
country are founded. The fundamental principles of Popery, 
as I have proved in preceding lectures, are at war with liberty of 
conscience and the freedom of the press. Rome has ever been 
found the lirm supporter of despotism, and the irreconcilable 
enemy of liberty. The Roman clergy of our country are, 
many of them, foreigners, who secured their edtication under 
the prevailing spirit of despotism ; and those who have been 
educated in our own cotmtry have sat at the feet of foreigners, 
and imbibed their principles. They have certainly received 
the principles of Popery, and can not, therefore, hold the 
principles which are dear to every trtie American. In tlie 
organization of the Church of Rome there is nothing demo- 
cratic ; not one popular princijde is admitted. In lier legis- 
lation, and in the administration of her government, the 
voice of the people is never heard, directly or indirectly. The 
Pope is an absolute monarch, whose signature hxes upon tlie 
dogmas of the church the seal of infallibility ; wlio*dispensea 
those ''heavenlv treaciures — Indulgences," to the people as 
45 



530 ''Sam:" or, the History of Mystery. 

to him seems good ; and whose decisions are hiws. The car- 
dinals are his chosen connsellors, who aid him in carrying- 
out the principles of despotism which characterize the system. 
The bishops of every grade are his lords, who meet in general 
council at his call, or who hold their provincial councils, and 
humbly submit their deliberations to be approved or con- 
demned by •' His Holiness." The priests are the humble 
servants of the Pope and his coadjutors, who move at his 
bidding. The inferior orders and the people hear the law, 
believe, and obey. How can persons, whose whole characters 
are molded under such despotism, teach the great principles 
of civil and religious liberty ? How can it be expected that 
men who dare not say one \\ord against the intolerance of 
Italy, Austria, Spain, Portugal, France, Mexico, and South 
America, will boldly and sincerely advocate the fundamental 
principles of our noble constitution, which guaranties to every 
American citizen the right to worship God according to the 
dictates of his own conscience? It would be just as reasona- 
ble to expect a true American to go to Austria, and, as a 
teacher of youth, to inculcate the despotic principles of that 
government ; or to Spain, and to plead for the restoration of 
the Inquisition. Will individual priests and nuns tiy in the 
face of their lord, G-regory XVI., and inculcate the princi- 
ples of freedom of speech and of the press, denounced by him 
as contrary to the principles of the church, and ruinous in 
their consequences V Can men who, like Archbishop Eccles- 
ton, of Baltimore, denounce a convention, whose object is to 
promote the better observance of the Sabbath, as contrary to 
the Constitution of the United States, hold and teach the 
principles of that Constitution ? 

I have proved that the moral principles of Kome, and 
especially of the Jesuits, are rotten to the very core. Let 
me now say, that there exists not on earth a government so 
absolutely despotic as that of the order of Jesuits. " The 
grand principle," says Dr. Duff, " which pervades, animates, 
and cements into one hrm and continuous chain the entire 
course of probationary exercises, is the reiterated, the inces- 
sant, the perpetual inculcation of a blind, implicit, unques- 
tioning obedience to the monarchical general of the order, or 
to the superior acting in his stead or name. In every con- 
ceivable variety of shape and form his will is declared to be 



'*Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 53 1 

law, sole and supreme law — his will is virtually that of 
omnipotence. To liim must the inclinations, the reason, and 
the conscience of every member be unconditionally surren- 
dered." In the constitutions of the order, which, after beino- 
long concealed, were dragged to light in Franco, in 1761, the 
novice is exhorted to " devote himself to the service of God, 
leaving the care of all other things to his superior, ivho 
doubtless holds the place of Christ our Lord.^' Again, novices 
are to " desire with perfect concurrence to be guided by them 
(their superiors), and not wishing to be led by their own 
judgment, except it agrees with that of those who are to 
them instead of Christ our Lord.''^ Again — " It is especially 
conducive to advancement, nay, even necessary, that all yield 
themselves to perfect obedience, regarding the superior as 
Christ the Lord, and submitting to him with inward rever- 
ence and affection. Let them obey, not only in the outward 
performance of what he enjoins, entirely, promptly, reso- 
lutely, and with all due humility, without excuses or murmurs, 
even though he order things hard to be done, and repugnant 
to their own sense ; but let them also strive to acquire perfect 
resignation and denial of their own will and judgment to 
that which the superior wills and judges (where sin is not 
perceived) — the will and judgment of the superior being set 
before them as the rule of their will and iudo;ment." Once 
more — "Let every one persuade himself that they who live 
under obedience should permit themselves to be moved and 
directed, under divine Providence, by their superiors, just 
as if they loere a corpse, ivhich alloivs itself to he moved and 
handled in any way ; or as the staff of an old man, which 
serves him wherever or in whatever thing he who holds it in his 
hand pleases to use it" — "persuading themselves tliat every- 
thing is just, suppressing every repugnant thought and 
judgment of their own in a certain obedience," etc. And 
lest any one might suppose, says Dr. Duff, that the formal 
introduction of any apparently exceptionary clauses — non- 
obligation of committing sin by way of obedience — formi'd 
any real or substantial limitation, it is expressly added, by 
way of explanation, that the constitution of the society does 
not "involve an obligation to commit sin, mortal or venial, 
unless the superior command them in the name of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, or in virtue of holy obedience : which shall be 



532 ''Sam : " or, the History of Mystery, 

done in those cases or persons, wherein it shall be judged 
that it shall greatly conduce to the particular good of each, 
or to the general advantage." 

The Komish king of Portugal, in a manifesto addressed 
to his bishops in 1759, gives the following description of the 
principles of the Jesuits. " In order to form the union, the 
consistency, and the strength of the Society, there should be 
a government not only monarchical, but so sovereign, so 
absolute, so despotic, that even the Provincials themselves 
should not have it in their power, by any act of theirs, to 
resist or retard the execution of the orders of the G-eneral. 
By this legislative, inviolable, and despotic power — by the 
profound devotedness of the subjects of this Company to 
mysterious laws with which they are not themselves acquaint- 
ed — by the blind and passive obedience by which tliey are 
compelled to execute, without hesitation or reply, whatever 
their superiors command — this Society is at once become the 
most consolidated and powerful body, and, at the same time, 
the greatest and most enormous of abuses, to which there is 
an urgent necessity that the Church and State should apply 
the most prompt and efficacious remedy.'' 

Kobertson gives the following account of the organization 
and principles of the Order. "But Loyola, full of the ideas 
of implicit obedience, which he had derived from his military 
profession, appointed that the government of his Order 
should be purely monarchical. A general, chosen for life 
by deputies from the several provinces, possessed power 
that was supreme and independent, extending to every per- 
son, and to every case. He, by his sole authority, nominated 
provincials, rectors, and every other officer employed in the 
government of the Society, and could remove them at plea- 
sure. In him was vested the sovereign administration of 
the revenues and funds of the Order. Every member 
belonging to it was at his disposal ; and by his uncontrolable 
mandate, he could impose on them any task, or employ them 
in what service soever he pleased. To his commands they 
were required not only to yield outward obedience, but to 
resign up to him the inclinations of their own wills, and the 
sentiments of their own understandings. Tliey were to 
listen to his injunctions, as if they had been uttered by 
Christ himself. Under his direction thev were to be mere 



'' Sam : ^' or, the History of Mystery. 633 

passive instruments, like clay in the hands of the potter ; or, 
like dead carcasses, incapable of resistance. Such a singular 
form of policy could not fail to impress its character on all 
the members of the Order, and to give a peculiar force to all 
its operations. There is not in the annals of mankind, any 
example of such perfect despotism, exercised not only over monks 
shut up in the cells of a convent, but over men dispersed among 
all the nations of the earth.^^ * Even Eeeve, the Romish his- 
torian, while zealously defending the Jesuits, states that 
"their form of government was monarchical, vested in a 
general chosen by the Body, for life ;" and that "prompt obe- 
dience, when there appeared no sin in the execution, was their 
characteristic virtue.'^ f We have already seen how easily they 
perform, and teach others to perform, the most atrocious acts, 
without regarding themselves as sinning. 

Are these the men by w^hose instructions the characters of 
American youth are to be formed ? Are they to inspire 
them with the spirit of liberty, and prepare them to be the 
worthy descendants of the patriots of ^76 ? Will they teach 
them, while themselves under the most absolute of all des- 
potism, to prize and preserve the free institutions of our 
happy country ? 

It is a fact — an imp>ortant fact, that Roman schools are 
not designed to jyromote thorough education, but to make con- 
verts to popery, and to enrich the clergy and the Church. The 
Roman clergy are aware that their cause has nothing to gain 
by that free spirit of free inquiry generated by a thorough 
education. The man who has been accustomed to inquire 
into reasons and evidences on all other subjects, will not read- 
ily found his religious faith upon the dicta of the clergy. 
He will desire to be able to give a reason for the hope that 
is in him. 

But if they are indeed the ardent friends of education, 
why do they, to so great an extent, neglect those countries 
where their faith is established ? With great zeal, and at 
great expense, they are establishing in our country, colleges 
and schools of every grade, for the education of both males 
and females. Why is not equal zeal manifested in popular 
education in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, and South 



^^ Charles V., Book vi, pp. 288, 289. fHiat. of Ch., vol. ii, p. 257. 



534 " Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 

America? It is a notorious fact, that in all these countries 
the masses of the people are uneducated and are grossly 
ignorant. We know that the people of Mexico, where popery 
has prevailed for ages past, are to this day semi-savages, 
possessing neither intelligence nor virtue sufhcient to sustain 
a free government. There is not in Mexico one literary 
institution of a high character ; and although it is very com- 
mon to find the lower classes of the people ahle to read, 
there are no such institutions for general education as the 
Eoman clergy are so zealous in establishing in our country. 
Waddy Thompson, Esq., says: "The only institution of any 
character in the city (of Mexico) is the Mineria — the College 
of Mines, as its name implies. * '••' * The professorships 
are very few, chiefly connected with physical science, and the 
chairs filled hy persons of extremely moderate attainments. 
The philosophical apparatus is altogether contemptible. * * 
The University, which was founded in 1531, is in a declining 
condition, if indeed it is not already extinct. There are 
some other colleges as they are called, but they are scarcely 
respectable primary schools.'' '•" The same writer says, 
*' There are scarcely any of those charitable institutions to 
which we are accustomed in all our principal cities. There 
are more of these, I have no doubt, in either of the cities of 
Boston or Philadelphia than in Mexico." How shall we 
account for the great zeal of the Roman clergy and of their 
allies in Europe, for establishing schools and benevolent 
institutions in this enlightened country, and their entire 
indifference to these same things in Mexico and other Romish 
countries ? It would not even be necessary to send to Europe, 
as do the clergy of the United States, for funds ; for the 
Roman clergy of Mexico possess a large proportion of all the 
wealth of that country. " I have heard intelligent men 
express the opinion," says Thompson, ^^ th.a,t one-fourth of the 
property of the country is in the hands of the priesthood ; 
and, instead of diminishing, is continually increasing." f 

The truth is, it is not the zeal of the Roman clergy in the 
cause of general education, which causes them to establish 
in our country so many schools. But there is among us a 
public sentiment in favor of education. Parents will educate 

*^'*Recolleetions of Mexico, pp. 147, 148. f Ibid, p. 41. 



" Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

their children, and if they be educated by Protestant teach- 
ers, few of them will ever embrace popery. This the clergy 
well understand. Moreover, the great^ principles of the 
Eeformation are so generally received — it is so universally 
believed that the Scriptures are the only infallible guide in 
religious faith, that the clergy find it extremely diSicult to 
make converts of adults, by preaching. Hence, their o-reat 
anxiety to monopolize, as far as possible, the education of our 
youth. 

I have said the design of Eoman schools is not to give a 
thorough education. I have not had the opportunity of 
forming a judgment of those established in this city; but I 
had, during nine years, a fair opportunity of ascertaining the 
literary character of their most celebrated schools in Ken- 
tucky. I have repeatedly received pupils from their nun- 
neries, while myself conducting a female institution ; and in 
every instance their minds had been injured rather than 
improved. I have attended their examinations, and found 
them, notwithstanding the special previous preparation, very 
superficial. I have known young men who were impatient 
to finish their literary course, leave other colleges and go to 
St. Joseph's, at Bardstown, because they could graduate 
there at least twelve months sooner. Some years since, two 
young men, after taking the course, and one of them receiv- 
ing his diploma at that institution, went to an eastern col- 
lege; and the young graduate was not able to enter, without 
first studying for several months under a tutor ! Another 
fact it may be worth while to record. Several years ago, I 
had occasion, as the editor of a weekly paper, to make some 
remarks not very favorable to the literary character of St. 
Joseph's college. Tliose remarks were brouglit before a 
literary society of that institution ; whereupon several reso- 
lutions intended to be oftensive were passed, and sent to me 
with a request to publish them. The document which was 
drawn up by a committee, one of whom had graduated, and 
others received their diplomas a few weeks afterward, was 
introduced, as a paper emanating from a literary society 
should be, with a Latin motto, which read as follows : 

" li qui vivunt dominibus vitreis, caveuut quo rnodo lapides mittere." 

To this Latin, which is not Latin, and to the resolutions 



536 *' Sam: '' or, the History of Mystery. 

passed, which were equally defective, hoth in orthography 
and syntax, I referred the public, for evidence conclusive 
that I had not undervalued the literary merits of the college. 
The affair caused some amusement in the town and much 
excitement in the college. 

The truth is, the Eoman clergy of this country have, by 
much boasting, gained a reputation for learning, which gen- 
erally they do not deserve. I know of no denomination of 
professing Christians, whose clergy are educated men, that 
does not possess a larger share both of talent and learning. 

But whatever may be the defects of Eoman institutions, 
they are certainly adapted admirably to accomplish one chief 
object for which they are established, viz : to make converts 
to popery. I have said that children and youth can never 
l>e very successfully taught by instructors who fail to secure 
their respect and affection. The great pretensions of Eoman 
instructors to superior knowledge, is adapted to secure the 
former, and their special kindness to the children of Protest- 
ants, whose conversion they anxiously seek, is extremely 
likely to accomplish the latter. Young girls, far from their 
]^arents and friends, naturally become strongly attached to 
the nuns, who, never losing sight of the great object — their 
conversion — lavish kindness upon them ; and youth of every 
class, inexperienced and unsuspecting, readily become strongly 
attached to their kind instructors. How natural for them 
to conclude that they are the best people in the world, and 
that their religion has made them so; and, of course, 
that their reliction is the best in the world. How natural 
that they should set down all that is said against popery as 
misrepresentation and slander, and that they should feel 
indignant at those who oppose it, and who seem to them to 
persecute their respected and beloved teachers. In this state 
of mind, who does not see that they are already more than 
half converted ? 

And then there is in the priests and nuns such an appear- 
ance of sanctity. To those unacquainted with true religion 
there was something very imposing in the broad phylacteries 
of the ancient Pharisees, in their frequent fasts, their many 
ablutions, their tithing of mint, anise, and cummin, and the 
like. There is even a greater show of sanctity in our priests 
and nuns. Will your children see through all this show of 



"Sam:" or. the History of Mystery. o37 

piety, and reject it? If they do, as some more advanced in 
years may, is tliere no reason to fear that they will feel a 
contempt for all religion, and become confirmed infidels ? 

But the Eomanists claim for their religion a venerable 
antiquity ; and they have a thousand stories to tell of saints, 
and miracles, and the like, well adapted to excite the minds 
of youth, and nuike lasting impressions upon them. Why, 
you may tell your children stories of ghosts and apparitions, 
till they will bt' afraid to sleep alone in a dark room. There 
is something in human nature that lays strong hold of such 
things ; and the impressions made by them are not readily 
eradicated. Then, at every turn, the images of those wonder- 
working saints are presented before the eyes of the pupils in 
Roman schools ; and they see the devout priests and nuns, 
with awful solemnity, kneeling before them in prayer. Can 
all this, with all the pomp and show of Roman worship, be 
constantly witnessed by the susceptible minds of youth, with- 
out making a deep impression ? 

Another fact is worthy of special consideration, viz : the 
children and youth placed in Roman schools, are required to 
attend and assist at all the public religious exercises. In 
the prospectus of one of their female institutions, I find the 
following: " Pupils of every religious denomination are 
admitted into the institution. No improper influence is ever 
to be used to bias the religious principles of the young ladies, 
nor will any of the scholars be allowed to embrace the Cath- 
olic religion, without a written or verbal permission from 
their parents. For the sake of order, all the hoarders are 
required to observe the general regulations of exterior worship.^^^ 
The reader will please mark the language here employed. 
The conductors of this institution do not say that they will 
exert no influence to bias the religious opinions of their pupils, 
but "NO improper influence '^ is to be used. What kind of 
influence do they regard as improper? On this point they 
are silent ; and w^e may content ourselves with the assurance 
they have given, that they will use no influence for the con- 
version of Protestant children, which they regard as improper I 
But they assure the public that they will not allow any of 
their pupils to become Roman Catholics, without permission 

** Catholic Almanac for 1846, p. 96. 



538 '• Sam : " or, the History of Mystery. 

from their parents. A poor consolation this, wlien they have 
filled the minds of children with their superstitions, and 
excited their strongest prejudices against the faith of their 
parents. Mark the fact, however, that "for the sake of 
order, all the boarders are required to observe the general 
regulations of exterior worship," — to unite in their prayers 
and devotions. 

In the prospectus of St. Grabriers College, Yincennes, la., 
we find a similar regulation : '' There is no interference 
whatever, with the religious belief of the pupils ; but for the 
sake of order, they are expected to comply with the external 
forms of Catholic worship, which is the religion professed by 
the members of this college." In the prospectus of St. Mary's 
Female Academy, it is stated, that the "members of the 
Protestant denominations are only required to assist with 
propriety and respect at the public exercises of the Catholic 
religion."'"'-' Such are the regulations in all Eoman schools, 
as far as mv information extends. In view of these res^ula- 
tions I have two remarks to make : 

1st. Every intelligent Protestant believes a considerable 
part of the religious worship of Roman Catholics to be unscrip- 
tural and idolatrous ; for example, the worship of the con- 
secrated wafer, the worship of saints and angels, praying 
before images, and the like. No enlightened and conscien- 
tious -Protestant could be induced to participate in such 
worship, even externally. The three Hebrews preferred 
being thrown into the fiery furnace, to conforming externally 
to the worship ordained by Nebuchadnezzar. Primitive 
Christians preferred death to throwing a handful of incense 
on a pagan altar. What right, then, I emphatically ask, 
have Protestant parents to place their children where they 
are obliged, at least externally, to commit idolatry ? What 
right have they to compel their children to do what they 
themselves could not, and would not do? What right have 
they to compel them to sin against God ? Is this the way to 
train them up in the nurture and admonition of tlie Lord ? 
I appeal to those parents who do not profess to be religious, 
but who do not believe the Roman worship to be Scriptural. 
Will they not admit, that if there is any one thing in wliich 

"Catholic Almanac for 1846, p. 118-125. 



''Sam:'^ or, the History of Mystery. 539 

sincerity should be preserved, and in which our external con- 
duct should accord with the convictions of the mind, the wor- 
ship of God is that thing? Why, then, will you compel your 
children to conform to religious worship whicli you feel 
constrained to tell them is not true, and not right ? Can 
such a course be adopted without serious injury to the moral 
principles of children ? Can parents who place their children 
under such influences, wonder if they become decided 
Papists ? 

2d. The children of Protestants are not only compelled to 
unite in religious worship which is unscriptural and idol- 
atrous, but they are obliged to hear all that may be said 
ai^-ainst the religion of the Bible, and in favor of Komanism — 
all the gross misrepresentations of the Eeformers and the 
Keformation, and all the wonderful stories about saints and 
ghosts, which may be introduced at the religious services they 
attend. Are their minds sufficiently stored with religious 
instruction to resist all this ? Is there no danger that con- 
victions will be fastened on their minds that can never be 
eradicated? The Sabbath, too, which their j^arents have 
taught them to remember to keep it holy, is now to be spent 
in idolatrous worship, and in hearing the worst religious 
errors plausibly set forth and defended. I know not how 
Protestant parents, who have any regard for their own reli- 
gious obligations, or for the moral and religious training of 
their children, can place them in the midst of such influ- 
ences. I can account for their conduct only by supposing 
them unacquainted with the real character of Koman insti- 
tutions. 

Another important fact which I must not omit to mention, 
is this : While every possible influence is throv/n around the 
children of Protestants to convert them to Popery, they are 
as carefully guarded against every influence that might serve 
to strengthen early impressions in favor of the religion of 
their parents. They are, to a great extent, cut oft' from all 
intercourse with Protestants ; and they are not permitted to 
have a single book which has not been approved by the presi- 
dent or superior. In the regulations of Georgetown College, 
District of Columbia, I find the following: "All books, of 
whatever kind, must, however, be submitted to the super- 
vision of the prefect of the schools, without whose permission 



540 *' Sam :" or, the History of Mystery. 

none will be allowed circulation in the college."" In Mount 
St. Mary's College, near Emmitsburg, " No books are allowed 
to circulate among the students which have not received the 
president's approval"! In the Academy of the Ursuline 
Nuns, the Prospectus says: "The scholars will not be per- 
mitted to bring any books, except such as are used in the 
school, and books of devotion."| Among the rules of St. 
John's college, I find the following : " No books will be 
allowed circulation among the students, which have not been 
previously submitted to the supervision and received the 
approval of either the president of the college, or the prefect 
of studies." § 

The children of Protestants, you perceive, especially if they 
are boarders, are wholly under the influence of Romanism. 
Parents can not put in their hands such religious books as 
they desire them to read, such, for example, as Doddridge's 
Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, Baxter's Saint's 
Rest, D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation. Such books 
could never receive the approbation of presiding officers in 
those schools. And it is extremely questionable whether the 
Bible is not a prohibited book. Certainly the Protestant 
Bible is. Some years ago, Dr. Henry Riley, a most excellent 
man, with whom I am well acquainted, who had been a 
student in Georgetown College, published a particular account 
of his stay in that institution, and of his conversion to Popery. 
Among other things, he stated the following facts: "Pre- 
vious to my leaving home, my mother (she was a Presbyterian) 
gave me a small Bible, with the hope that I would make 
good use of it. But her hopes were all in vain — for on 
reaching the college our trunks were sujected to rigid inspec- 
tion, and everything removed beyond our control, except such 
books or things as they in their wisdom saw fit to entrust us 
with. Several of my books, I never afterward saw — what 
became of them is better known to others than to me. Fathers 
Grassie, Kohlman, McElroy, etc., can, no doubt, give some 
account of them. Restitution of unlaivfully borrowed property 
is enjoined by these spiritual fathers, on those who in their 
confessions acknowledge the commission of such a crime. •" '•' 
But it may be said, the books were of a demoralizing 

«> Catholic Almanac for 1846, p. 77. Ubid., p. 78. |Ibid., p. 97. §Ibid., p. Ill- 



*' Sam: " or, the History of Mystery. 541 

character. They were such as a solicitous parent had given 
me, and one was what God had given to a ruined world for 
its salvation. 1 occasionally saw one of these books in the 
lumds of a novice (candidate for Holy orders, or rather for 
full admission into the society), and though 1 recognized it 
as mine, I dared not whisper that it was." Instead of the 
books w^hich a pious mother had put in the hands of her sou, 
he says, "prayer-books, catechisms, etc., were put into my 
hands ; and it was but a short time before I avowed myself 
a decided, determined Catholic. Ere long, he tells us, he 
" had fully imbibed the sentiments which the officers of the 
college so industriously endeavored to impress on the minds 
of all, that out of the pale of the Catholic church, there is no 
jjossible salvation, and my purpose now^ was falli/ to become a 
priest — a thorough Jesuit." Dr. Riley was greatly troubled 
at the thought that his parents were Protestants ; but so 
completely infatuated was he, that he felt confident of being 
able at once to convince them of the truth of his new creed, 
wdien he should return home. He says, " It was my purpose, 
however, notwithstanding any opposition I might meet with, 
to remain firm in my determination to live, to labor, and to 
die, a Jesuit, for 1 had been taught not to heed the admoni- 
tions and the opposition of parents and friends in the prose- 
cution of so good a cause." He mentions several others, 
sons, of Protestants, wdio, like himself, soon became confirmed 
Papists. 

The officers of Roman schools, it is possible, may some- 
times deem it wise to allow^ the child of Protestant parents 
to retain a Bible ; but are young persons likely to read that 
sacred book, wdien they know the opposition of their teachers, 
and that perseverance in such a course will necessarily expose 
them to ridicule and reproach, if not to unkind treatment? 

To show what reliance is to be placed on the pledges of 
Roman institutions not to interfere with the religious opin- 
ions of Protestant children, I must state another fact. A 
Protestant lady who resided in one of the southern States, 
several years ago, sent her adopted son to St. Mary's college, 
in Kentucky, an institution under the care of tlie Jesuits. 
About twelve months after, she visited her son, and was sur- 
prised and exceedingly troubled when she ascertained that he 
had been alreadv received into the Romisli church. She 



542 "Sam: or, the History of Mystery. 

immediately removed him from the college, and placed him 
under my care. I afterwards published the facts as she 
stated them to me. The President of St. Joseph's college, 
situated at Bardstown, made a publication in reply, in which 
he asserted that the boy's mother was a Roman Catholic, 
whose dying request to his adopted mother was to have him 
trained in that faith ; that he had learned this from the 
adopted mother herself; and that her son, a gentleman of 
high standing, had so directed the professors of St. Mary's 
college ; and he even obtained from one of those Jesuits a certi- 
ficate to this efi'ect. Providentially it so happened, that whilst 
the subject was exciting public attention, the gentleman who 
was said to have directed the boy to be taua'ht in the Romish 
faith, reached the town, (Bardstown, Kentucky,) and imme- 
diately gave me a certificate that he had given no such 
direction ; that the boy's mother was not known to have been 
a Roman Catholic, and had never made such a request as the 
President of St. Joseph's had pretended." Thus did those 
Reverend gentlemen abuse the confidence placed in them, and 
then fabricate stories to shield themselves from merited 
reproach. Many similar facts might be stated, but it is un- 
necessary. It is a fact that the schools established in our 
country are regarded as a most important part of that machi- 
nery by which the Roman clergy hope to promote and establish 
their faith. Will they not, then, do their utmost to bring 
about the desired result ? They may not, in all cases make 
direct efforts to convince the children of Protestants that the 
religion of their parents is heresy ; for often they will see 
that indirect influences are likely to be the most effectual. 

Some years ago, Bishop Flaget, of Bardstown, Kentucky, 
wrote to his friends in Europe, as follows : " Still, had I 
treasures at my disposal, I would multiply colleges and 
schools for girls and boys; I would consolidate all these 
establishments, by annexing to them lands or annual rents ; 
I would build hospitals and public houses ; in a word I would 
compel all my Kentuckians to admire and love a religion so 



"These facts, and others connected with the case, were published in the 
Western Protestant, then edited by the author of these lectures, in Bards- 
town, Kentucky, in the summer of 1836. The Protestajit was the first 
paper in the West, so far as the editor is informed, devoted to the Romish 
controversy. 



^' Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 543 

benevoleJit and generous, and i^erhaps I should finish hy 
converting them:'' The editor of the Annals of the Associa- 
tion for the Propagation of the Faith, comments as follows on 
Bishop Flaget's communication : " Mgr. Flaget has established 
in his diocese many convents of nuns, devoted to the education 
of young females. These establishments do wonderful good. 
Catholics and Protestants are admitted indiscriminately.' The 
latter, after having finished their education, return to the 
bosom of their families, full of esteem and veneration for 
tlicir instructresses. They are ever ready to refute the cal- 
umnies which the jealousy of heretics loves to spread aoainst 
the religious communities ; and oftsn, when they have nolonger 
tJie opposition of their relations to fear, they embrace the Cccth- 
olic religion^'' In the publications made by the Koman cleroy 
in this country, concerning these schools, Protestant parents 
are assured that no influence will be exerted on the minds 
of their children, to change their religious sentiments, or to 
convert them to Popery. But in their communications to 
their patrons in Europe, they boast of the number of Prot- 
estant children converted, who, so soon as they can do so, 
openly embrace the Komish faith. Kepresentations so con- 
tradictory can never be reconciled with truth and candor ; 
and none but a corrupt system of religion would seek to sus- 
tain itself by such means. 

But even if the conductors of Koman schools should strictly 
regard their pledge not to interfere with the religious senti- 
ments of Protestant children, it would still be most unsafe 
to commit to them their education. They can not give such 
an education as American parents should desire their children 
to have ; and the various influences brought to bear upon 
them, directly or indirectly, would still secure the conversion 
of many of them to Popery. It will be found, on examina- 
tion, that the large proportion of the youth educated in Eoman 
schools, if they are not decided converts, are decidedly pnju- 
diced in favor of their teachers and of their religious faith. 
There are in the minds of all of us, pleasing and hallowed 
recollections connected with our school-boy days ; and it is 
most unwise in parents to allow those pleasing recollections 
to be associated with religious error and a loose morality. 

The very best that Protestant parents hope for their chil- 
dren, when placed in Koman schools, is, that tliey will not bo 



544 " Sam : " OR, the History of Mystery. 

seriously injured as to their moral and religious principles. 
They do not expect them to receive correct religious instruc- 
tion. But Yvdiat right have parents to place their children 
beyond the reach of scriptural instruction and Christian 
influence, during that most interesting period of life when 
the deepest and most permanent impressions are made upon 
them? What i-ight have they to expose them to dangers 
which more mature minds often fail to resist? When they 
pray for themselves, " Lead us not into temptation,'^ what 
kind of a prayer do they ofter for their children whom they 
have placed in Eoman schools ? 

I can not close this lecture without saying something par- 
ticularly concerning those nunneries in which so many Prot- 
estant children are educated. The nuns all take the vow 
of poverty, chastity, and obedience. However rich the institu- 
tion with which they are connected, they possess nothing. 
Separated from friends and relatives, they must yield the 
most implicit obedience to their superiors. They are the best 
slaves in the world. Their vows are more potent than the 
legal claims of slaveholders ; and, as they are taught to 
believe that sufferino's endured in this life will shorten their 
stay in the fires of purgatory, they deny themselves the 
comforts of life, and endure the greatest hardships most 
willingly. Or, if they discover their error, and deplore the 
folly committed in taking such vows upon them, there is no 
escape from their gloomy prison. It is so disreputable in the 
view of Komanists to return to the world, that they prefer 
suff'erins: even unto death, to such a course. 

Nunneries are money-making establishments. Some of the 
nuns are employed as teachers; some are house and kitchen 
servants ; and some labor in the fields ! In Kentucky they 
have been seen in the harvest fields, driving the ox-cart, 
making a fire for the priest, saddling his horse, and the like. 
All their labors are performed, as already intimated, without 
hope of pecuniary compensation. There is a nunnery near 
Bardstown, Kentucky, located on a farm of several hundred 
acres, the number of vvdiose female boardfe has averaged 
from one hundred to one himdred and fifty. The charges 
for each, including extras, would not be less than one hundred 
and fifty dollars. The annual income of the institution is not 
less than iifteen thousand dollars. The outlay is not very 



'• Sam : '^ OR, THE History of Mystery. 545 

considerable, since their provisions are mainly raised on the 
farni. If I were to set down the clear annual profit of the 
institution at ten thousand dollars, I should probably be below 
the mark. Almost tlie whole of this money is earned by the 
nuns ; but no part of it goes to them, Their coarse fare and 
clothing is all they receive. The clergy are enriched by the 
degradation of these poor women, whom they have succeeded 
in deluding. I know not how others may feel, but it appears 
to me that every Christian and every American should set 
his face against those prisons, where females are incarcerated, 
and degraded from the sphere they are destined to fill. 

But what is the real character of the nunneries of our coun- 
try ? Are they as pure in morals as they should be ? Who 
knows ? The nuns are unmarried females. Unmarried men 
have access to those establishments at all times ; and the in- 
mates are expected to confess all their sins to them. The 
affairs of the institution are concealed from the eye of the public. 
Most of the nuns are not known, perhaps, to a human beino- 
within hundreds of miles of them. Some may be removed to a 
distance, and others take their places, and the change may 
never be known to the community in which the nunnery is l(x.'a- 
ted, There is every possible facility for concealing vices which 
can scarcely be committed by others without detection. It is a 
fact, admitted even by Koman writers, that multitudes of the 
priests and bishops, and even some of the popes have disre- 
garded their vow of chastity. It is admitted, as I proved in 
a preceding lecture, that many, very many priests, whilst 
hearing confessions, have fallen into gross vice and ruined 
their penitents. It is notorious, that in other countries, vice 
has found its way into nunneries ; and they have become 
corrupt. What evidence, then, have we, that those secret 
establishments among us are what they should be ? Suppose 
a number of unmarried Protestant ministers should conclude 
to establish institutions of a similar character, and should 
collect from all quarters unmarried females, secluded from 
public view; would they be tolerated in such a course? And 
suppose that some of those women should live in tlieir houses 
with them, as they do in the houses of the Koman bisliops — 
houses not by any means so public as those of other men, but 
removed from the street, and surrounded by a high wall — 
what would be thought of such men ? And what right have 

4« 



546 '' Sam -/' or, the History of Mystery. 

the Eoman clergy to claim public confidence, when pursuing 
a course that would be considered most disreputable in other 
men of equal claims to confidence ? 

1 must here take leave to give you a very brief history 
of a case in point. Some twelve years ago, a nun, in Ken- 
tucky, left the institution with wliich she was connected, and 
returned to her father's house, alleging as her reason the 
improper conduct of the presiding priest toward her. Her 
father and relatives were ignorant and bigoted Papists. They 
regarded her as guilty of a horrid crime in preferring charges 
against one of the holi/ priesthood; and she was driven from 
home with threats of violence. She went to the house of a 
Baptist minister, a near neighbor, to whom she told her 
story. The report soon spread through the neighborhood, 
that this woman was charging the priest with immorality. 
A large proportion of the people were Papists, and, of course, 
there arose much excitement against her. She remained a 
short time in the neighborhood, and was suddenly missing ; 
and from that day to this she has never been heard of! 

The present speaker was then editing a paper in Bards- 
town, and he published the facts in the case. A suit for 
libel was instituted against him by the President of St. 
Joseph's College, in behalf of the priest implicated in the 
aflPair. The damages were laid at ten thousand dollars. The 
suit was pending twelve months. The Eoman clergy of Ken- 
tucky fully identified themselves with the suit. The weight 
of all tlie nunneries in that region, of which there were 
several, was thrown into the scales. Eminent lawyers were 
employed on both sides. The priests had every motive to 
explain the mysterious absence of the nun, and to produce 
her before the public. The court decided that the defendant 
was bound to prove the actual guilt of the priest, and that 
the missing nun was the only competent witness in plea of 
justification. Much testimony was taken, and many facts not 
previously published were proved. The verdict of the jury 
gave the priest damages to the amount of one cent ! The 
character of the jurymen was assailed by some of the friends 
of the priests, or by the priests in disguise. In consequence 
of which, nine of them (two others resided at a distance) 
made a publication, from which I read the following: "He 
[the writer of the charges against them] again states that 



" Sam: '^ or, the History of Mystery. 5-i7 

one of the most intelligent of the jury has stated publicly, 
since the trial, that he was for damages, or heavy damages. 
If there was any such juror on that jury, he kept his opinion 
to himself — he did not make it known to the other jurors, as 
he ought to have done. We do affirm that one cent was the 
highest damages named by any one on that jury in our 
hearing ; and we further state, that every one of the jury, 
who was for finding a verdict for the plaintiff [the priest], 
did state that he would glory in making each one pay his 
own costs, if it were in his power to do so. And we also 
state, that under all the circumstances, but for the instruc- 
tions of the court, we would have been compelled to find a 
verdict for the defendant " [Rice]. The testimony was taken 
down at the time, signed by the court, and filed among the 
records of the Nelson County Circuit Court. I immediately 
published in the Western Protestant, and afterwards in a small 
volume, a full account of the trial, with the testimony in the 
case. And it is a fact, that the priests, though they instituted 
suit professedly for the purpose of obtaining the testimony 
and laying it before the public, never have published one 
line of it, nor even the verdict rendered ! The public would 
have remained ignorant of ihQ verdict, but for the Protestant 
press. 

I have given this brief history of the only law-suit in 
which I was ever involved, because it is the only suit of the 
kind which has occurred in our country ; because it shows 
the estimation in which the character of a priest and his 
nunnery were held, where they were well known, where the 
legal testimony was fully heard, and where the most power- 
ful influences were brought to bear by the bishop and his 
clergy to sustain the suit. 

The fate of Milly McPherson, the lost nun, is still 
involved in profound mystery. Many believe, and will 
believe, that she was murdered to prevent further exposures 
of the priests and nunneries ! 

Prudent parents will pause and consider, before they place 
their daughters in Roman nunneries to be educated. It can 
not be, that nuns, the most superstitious of all people, who 
never tliink for themselves, are the persons to discipline the 
minds of female youth to vigorous and independent thinking. 
It will be found, I apprehend, that the education given in 



548 •' Sam: '' or, the History of Mystery. 

nunneries is far more ornamental than solid. Bat if they 
were what they are not. the best literary institutions in the 
land, they are not the places for the daughters of Protestant 
parents. I have in my possession other evidences most con- 
clusive, that the nunneries of our country are not all pure. 
Some years ago, a Koman priest, who, in consequence of some 
difficulty with his bishop, had ceased to officiate, though not 
deposed, placed in my hands several letters of nuns, one 
addressed to himself, and the others to another priest, which 
leave no room to doubt that corruption had found its way 
into the nunnery with which they were connected. As this 
nunnery had connected with it a female school to which 
Protestant parents were sending their daughters, I deemed 
it my duty to publish them, which I did in the Western 
Protestant. The Roman clergy preserved a profound silence, 
never publishing one word by way of vindication. 

In the letter addressed to the priest who placed it in my 
hands, the nun says: ''I did not see F. David (the bishop) 
until the next Tuesday after we got home. I went then to 
speak to liim. He told me he had received my letters in due 
time, but that I had not opened any secret to him whatever — 
that he knew these things long before, and that he was not at 
all astonished at anything that had happened, from the experi- 
ence of former years. I do not mention these things to 
excuse my own faults ; neitlier have I any reason to regret 
the manifestations I then made, though at the time so repug- 
nant to my feelings. "' "' '" Then let me entreat you, as 
a friend to virtue, not to let your mind be prejudiced by what 
is past with regard to the little community now under your 
pastoral care. [This priest had just taken charge of the 
nunnery.] If some have had the misfortune to be implicated 
by them, all have not, to my certain knowledge,'^ etc. 
Another nun addresses her priest in the following style : — 
" Oh ! do come and see your poor sacred dog — if only to spend 
a few hours with her. Pray much for your poor sacred dog, 
and favor her with a few lines." This same nun after her 
priest had turned with scorn and contempt from her, 
addressed him another letter, in which she says : " Since you 
have found out the unknown blessing of my being removed 
from this place, I shall not give way to excessive grief on 
the occasion. '■•' * ''' I am very far from wishing to stay 



" Sam :" OR, THE History of Mystery. 549 

with a confessor, that avails himself of every provocation, 
real or imaginary, to express his aversion to my person, and 
his regret for my coming hack. If I stay it will he through 
compulsion. - - - If I wished the appellation of ivife, 
sweethea7% or loveli/ dear, as you told me I did, I certainly 
would take some means to gain them." 

I take no pleasure in making such developments as these ; 
but nunneries are public institutions, where Protestant par- 
ents are invited to educate their daughters; and it is the 
solemn duty of those who know something of their true 
character, to lift a warning voice. There may, possibly, be 
nunneries free from such scandals ; but there is so much con- 
cealment about them, that it is impossible for the public to 
know them. And those who know any thing of human 
nature, we would think, would never conhde in them. 

In conclusion, I must express my deep conviction, that 
Protestant denominations have committed one capital error 
in the important matter of education. They have estab- 
lished and endowed colleges for boys and young men ; but 
they have left female education almost wholly dependent upon 
individual enterprise. The consequence has been, and is, that 
their female schools have been generally short-lived. Teach- 
ers, generally, have not funds to erect suitable buildings, 
furnish apparatus, and place schools on a solid foundation. 
There have, therefore, been constant efforts and constant 
failures ; and the public, losing confidence in Protestant 
schools, have turned to those permanently established by 
Papists. 

And why should such a difference be made in providing 
for the education of the tv\^o sexes? Is female education 
less important, either to Church or State? It is not. The 
earliest and the deepest moral impressions ever made on the 
mind by human instrumentality are those made by mothers. 
If the mother of a family be an ignorant, sluttish woman, 
it matters not what is the character of the father, the family 
is ruined. If the mother be a Eoman Catholic, the children 
will not probably be Protestants. 

I should like to say much more on this important subject; 
but I have already occupied much of your time. Allow me 
to say, that the Ptoman clergy understand this subject. 
Thev have seen the error of Protestants ; and they have 



550 " Sam : '• or, the History of Mystery. 

multiplied female institutions in every part of the country. 
They are far more numerous than their colleges and schools 
for boys. I trust the day is at hand when Protestants gen- 
erally, will awake to the incalculable importance of this sub- 
ject, and will establish permanent female institutions of a 
proper character, and so endowed, as to place a good education 
within the reach of the poor as well as the rich. Then, and 
not until then, will Protestant American females be freed 
from the direful influence of Papacy. 

But '' Sam " is again awake ; and the great God who has 
triumphantly guided his steps thus far, from infancy to man- 
hood's prime, will, no doubt, continue to direct him in the 
future, and save our Union from the certain ruin and decay, 
inevitably consequent upon the sway and misrule of despotic 
Popery. 

May God direct us, and save us from such a fate. Amen. 



31^77-1 



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